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ISSUE 3 2014
PRINCE HARRY
LAUNCHES THE
INVICTUS GAMES
CENTER PARCS'
MARTIN DALBY
“The dream has
finally come true”
VAL KEMPADOO
On a new kind of
Caribbean tourism
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LEISURE
HEALTH
& FITNESS
SPORT
ATTRACTIONS
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Parts of the industry are ripe for disruption
and a new generation of dreamers and
entrepreneurs are doing just that
I
n this issue, we celebrate the disruptors –
innovators who are coming into the leisure
industry with new ideas which are innovative
enough to bring about radical change in the way
things are done in their sector – whether it be
spa, health and fitness, sport or hospitality.
Amen Iseghohi brought lessons and inspiration from
his African childhood to bear when he launched his
gym chain, Amenzone Fitness, from a site in Scottsdale
Arizona, US in 2008. The gym eschews many standard
practices, with no weight machines, no headsets allowed,
a strong social approach and the aim of working as much
on members’ self esteem as their bodies.
Instructors at Amenzone use a selection of different
sized tyres and members’ bodyweight to create a wide
range of workouts – classes include ‘primal fitness’ and
a ‘yoga and rebel workout’. In a break from the silent,
plugged-in gyms which are the norm, members are
encouraged to talk to each other, while instructors shake
hands with members after workouts and mentor them.
You can read about Iseghohi’s visionary business and
how he’s growing it as a global brand on page 36.
The potential of the spa sector to attract the huge
numbers of consumers who don’t visit spas is attracting
attention from investors and operators and on page 40
we talk to Nic Ronco – a Frenchman living in New York –
about his growing day spa concept, YeloSpa.
Yelo sells time by the minute, has multiskilled
therapists and offers sleep pods as well as
treatments. Ronco piloted his concept in New York City
and is now rolling it out using a franchise model.
In the resorts market, many global operators parachute
Western-style operations into developing and third world
countries, then charge Western prices and employ
cheaper local labour to create a huge profit margin. It’s a
model which can be found all over the developing world.
Radical change is exciting
and energising and we need
it to ensure we continue to
delight consumers with new
and compelling offers driven
by disruptive thinking
In the Caribbean, entrepreneur Val Kempadoo says
this approach is “not dissimilar to that of the plantation
model of yesteryear: one of maximum extraction and
exploitation.” He says, “It’s very sad that after 500
years we’re still doing pretty much the same thing.”
Kempadoo has embarked on building a business on
the island of St Kitts that breaks this model and sets
a new direction for resort development by being owned
and operated by locals. His upscale, sustainable resort –
called Kittitian Hill – will open in phases through this year
and next and will be aimed at wealthy New Yorkers and
Londoners, as St Kitts has direct flights from both cities.
Kittitian Hill has already attracted the attention of other
Caribbean governments keen to do similar projects. You
can read our interview with Kempadoo on page 46.
Innovation is the lifeblood of this fast-moving, fashionconscious industry and sharing news of disruptive
thinking enables the industry to benefit from insights
into the inspiration, work and passion of others. I hope
you enjoy reading about these visionary disruptors.
Liz Terry, editor @elizterry
Tel: +44 (0)1462 431385 www.leisuremedia.com
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
@leisuremanmag
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3
WELCOME
Martin Dalby on opening Center Parcs Woburn Forest PAGE 56
Wilkinson Eyre’s cooled conservatories at Gardens by the Bay
8 People News
Prince Harry to launch Invictus Games,
Kit and Tim Kemp open Ham Yard Hotel
and Brent Bushnell announces opening
dates for STEAM Carnival
14 Sector News
From spa to sports and technology to
tourism, we look at leisure’s big stories
4
PAGE 30
24 Design News
Ace Hotels’ newest launch, Nobu’s
first European hotel and a look at the
Danish House of Music
36 Making tracks
No tvs or mirrors and no equipment
except recycled tyres – Amen Iseghohi
on his back to basics chain of gyms
30 Paul Baker
The Wilkinson Eyre director on the
challenges of designing Singapore’s
award-winning cooled conservatories
40 Nicolas Ronco
The New York spa that offers naps and
massages to stressed out executives is
going global. Its founder tells us more
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ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
Tel: +44 (0)1462 431385 www.leisuremedia.com
@leisuremanmag
%J4S6Q5
Amen Iseghohi PAGE 36
Nicolas Ronco PAGE 40
Val Kempadoo PAGE 46
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos funds Seattle science centre
46 Val Kempadoo
The politician turned social
entrepreneur on his plan to create a
sustainable future for the Caribbean
56 Martin Dalby
The Center Parcs CEO tells us why
giving up on Woburn Forest was not an
option, and what’s next for the company
52 MOHAI
How the Jeff Bezos-funded Bezos
Center for Innovation is celebrating
Seattle’s history of innovation
66 Talkback
Is the government’s crackdown on term
time holidays damaging tourism? Those
affected slug it out
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
PAGE 52
68 Bidding for the obesity buck
We take a look at who’s bidding to
solve the obesity crisis
76 A Pall Mall Palace
Grahame Senior finds out how the
Reform Club is moving with the times
82 Sheila Johnson
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5
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6
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Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
7
LEISURE MANAGEMENT
PEOPLE
"The guys who’ve got
to this stage and are
able to take part in
these events have, in
my mind, already won"
HRH Prince Harry, founder
and patron of Invictus Games
P
rince Harry is bringing a
new major sports event to
the UK this year. Invictus
Games will see more than
300 wounded, injured and
sick servicemen and women compete
across a number of paralympic-style
sports in London later this year.
The first ever Invictus Games will
take place from 10 to 14 September
and will be fashioned after the
US-based annual Warrior Games,
which first took place in 2013. The
vision for the Invictus Games is to
harness the power of sport to inspire
recovery, support rehabilitation and
generate a wider respect for those
who serve their country.
“I’ve witnessed first-hand how the
power of sport can positively impact
the lives of wounded, injured and sick
servicemen and women in their journey of recovery,” the Prince said.
“The Invictus Games will focus on
what they can achieve post-injury
and celebrate their fighting spirit
through an inclusive sporting competition that recognises the sacrifice
they have made. I’m extremely proud
that we are bringing an event like this
to the UK for the first time and believe
it can have a long-lasting impact on
the well-being of those who’ve served
their nations so bravely.”
8
Prince Harry was inspired by
a visit to the Warrior Games
competition in the US
The Prince added that the Games
would be an important part of the
legacy of the 2012 Olympics, with
the main venues being the Queen
Elizabeth Olympic Park and the Lee
Valley Athletics Centre.
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
“Invictus Games will offer the opportunity for the public to come and sit in
these iconic Olympic and Paralympic
venues," he said. "We want to try and
get as many of these servicemen and
women back into society.”
The event will feature a wide range
of sporting disciplines – including
athletics, archery, wheelchair basketball and swimming.
Details: www.invictusgames.org
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
PEOPLE
"As nerds who build games for a
living we had an opportunity to
rebrand what it is to be an engineer"
Brent Bushnell, CEO, Two Bit Circus
B
rent Bushnell, the cofounder and chief
executive of high-tech
amusement company
Two Bit Circus, has
announced the launch date for
STEAM Carnival – an entertainment
showcase that re-imagines the classic
midway with lasers, fire and robots.
The inaugural event will take place
in Los Angeles' Crafted port-side
warehouse on 25 and 26 October and
will combine hands-on social games
with project-based learning to inspire
children to pursue science, technology,
engineering, art, and maths (STEAM).
“We're out to show kids that engineering is the new rock 'n roll. We're
using high tech games, project-based
kits, and other fun to demonstrate
what's possible with a technical background,” said Bushnell.
The idea for the STEAM Carnival
came after several members of the
Two Bit Circus team helped make a
video for Chicago rock band OK Go.
The engineers built a machine for
the video which pours water, rolls
balls down tracks, knocks over chairs,
swings sledgehammers, releases
umbrellas and balloons and fires paint
The carnival will incorporate
hands-on workshops
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
Two Bit Circus co-founders Brent
Bushnell (above right) and Eric
Gadman (above left)
– all in time with the music.
“After the video launched we
received a lot of calls from parents
and teachers telling us how inspired
their kids were,” said Bushnell. “As
nerds who build games and entertainment for a living we realised we
had an opportunity to rebrand what it
means to be an engineer. It's not just
pencil ties and lab coats! This experience helped us realise that art has the
power to bring a different audience to
the engineering table. Love fashion?
Introduce fashionistas to electronics
to create wearable technology. Love
music? Create a musical robot band!
The STEAM weekend will include
live performances, interactive experiences, workshops, contests, and
artisanal carnival food. There are
also plans to take the carnival to San
Francisco in 2015.
As part of the STEAM focus, student participants will have the
opportunity to showcase projects
through a variety of exhibitions
including a wearable electronics fashion show and a junior arcade.
The STEAM carnival project gained
momentum last June after a campaign
on crowdfunding website Kickstarter
raised $102,699 through user donations to fund its development.
Support has continued to swell
since and the project now counts top
LA officials among its supporters.
Details: steamcarnival.com
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
9
PEOPLE
"This project creates a village feel
where everybody feels included"
Tim and Kit Kemp, founders, Firmdale Hotels
T
im and Kit Kemp, the
founders of influential
boutique hotel company
Firmdale Hotels, have
opened their latest
property in London's Soho.
The Kemps have described the project as their most ambitious to date
– it involved the transformation of a
neglected three quarter acre site into
a new 'village' with a tree-filled garden
at its centre. The hotel includes 90
bedrooms and suites, 24 apartments,
13 independent shops and a restaurant
10
and bar with outdoor space. It also features Firmdale's first Soholistic Spa
and gym, a 176-seat theatre, a 1950s
style bowling alley, drawing room,
library and a rooftop garden.
“This part of Soho has felt slightly
neglected in the past,” say Tim and
Kit Kemp. “When you introduce a
project like this into an area it can
breathe new life into the environment.
It enhances it and creates a village
feel where everybody feels included.
To walk into a tree-filled space in the
centre of London is very special.”
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The interiors have been designed
by Kit Kemp in 'modern British style' –
bedrooms feature strong colours and
bold prints, while the bathrooms have
standalone iron baths and are done out
in oak and granite. The architecture
was by global design and consulting
firm Woods Bagot.
The Kemps launched Firmdale
Hotels in 1985. It now has eight hotels
– seven in London and The Crosby
Street Hotel in New York City.
Details: www.firmdalehotels.com
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
The interior design is fun and
eclectic, with bold patterns and
prints. It features a 1950s style
bowling alley (bottom right)
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
11
PEOPLE
"Sport is one of the most
effective and practical ways of
planting the seeds of peace"
Tim Jahnigen and Lisa Tarver, co-founders of One World Futbol
Sting provided the funding to do
the research and development
for One World Futbol
I
t wasn’t until he had reached the
age of 40 that Tim Jahnigen had
his 'Aha!' moment. “I was watching a news story about the plight
of children in Darfur,” he said.
“These acutely traumatised innocents were playing football with a ball
of trash. I suddenly sat upright with
the complete and unwavering understanding of the fact that these children
deserved better. I not only wanted to
make a ball that would enable them to
play, but had a vision for a new type of
ball that would play like a soccer ball,
but would never go flat.”
Up until his revelation, Jahnigen
had been involved in a number of different sectors and business ventures
– including a career as a concert producer in the music industry. “I spent
many years scrubbing, digging, washing and hammering – fulfilling other
people’s dreams,” he said, adding that
it was his connections in the music
world that made the ball a reality.
Jahnigen had got to know the
singer Sting personally after being a
part of the production family for the
12
Tarver and Jahnigen (left) have
worked together on the One
World Futbol project (above)
artist’s bi-annual Rainforest Fund
Concert. Soon after coming up with
the indestructible ball idea, Jahnigen
– alongside wife and business partner
Lisa Tarver – mentioned his vision to
Sting over breakfast.
“He was telling us how he had just
financed the construction of a football pitch in Gaza,” Jahnigen said. “I
shared my idea for an indestructible
soccer ball with him and he immediately offered to cover the R&D costs.”
Sting’s involvement carries on in
the ball’s name. “When the time
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
came to decide what this new ball
should be called, Sting simply said,
'One World', after his hit of the same
name”, said Jahnigen. Sting and his
wife Trudie Styler continue to support the project.
Jahnigen’s wife Lisa has said the
venture is a mission-driven company
focused on the transformative power
of play. “We sell the One World Futbol
through a buy one give one model”,
she said. “For every ball purchased,
we give a second one to an organisation using play and sport to teach
health awareness, conflict resolution,
gender equality and life skills.
“In addition, we partner with corporations, such as our founding sponsor
Chevrolet, which has pledged to
donate 1.5m balls over three years.” O
Details: www.oneworldfutbol.com
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
A MAPIC PROMOTION
Leisure – a vital part of
today's shopping mall
Q&A with Nathalie Depetro, director of Mapic
MAPIC IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF REED MIDEM- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Why are leisure and
entertainment so important
for retail areas today?
With online sales booming, traditional
retail – whether in city centres or shopping centres – has adapted its offering
and its marketing approach. The challenge now for those involved in real
estate business such as Triple Five,
Regions Group, Sonae Sierra, Wanda
Group and Apsys, to name a few, is
to redefine the idea of the shopping
centre, and provide an enhanced customer experience. Customers will still
visit shopping centres with the goal
of purchasing, but they will also come
to spend a day of fun, fellowship and
leisure with family and friends. The
shopping centre is a one stop shop for
today’s customers.
How does MAPIC showcase
Retailtainment & Edutainment
over three days?
19-21 NOVEMBER 2014 - CANNES, FRANCE
Firstly, MAPIC focuses on retail real
estate on a global scale. It’s the only
event where all types of development
FIND OUT MORE
Contact Laetitia Garat, sales manager
Tel +33 6 03 28 48 33
Email laetitia.garat@reedmidem.com
www.mapic.com
ISSUE 4 2014 © cybertrek 2014
sites are represented: shopping
centres, city centres, outlying areas,
transit zones, factory outlets and
leisure centres. This is a unique
opportunity for leisure operators and
leisure brands to meet with their
peers and exchange best practices
with international players and owners
of different retail site types.
How will entertainment
and leisure integrate in
shopping centres?
In the previous century, culture, leisure
and entertainment played a nominal
role in the shopping centre strategy, and
were perceived in some ways as merely
philanthropic or charitable in nature. But
in the wake of online competition, many
savvy developers and shopping centre
operators now perceive a major opportunity to increase footfall by rebranding
the shopping centre as an event-space
that encourages the public to stay
longer (and buy more) while visiting the
mall. Events can be focused on culture,
leisure or education. O
In 2014, a
dedicated
RETAILTAINMENT
zone will gather key
players from the
sector. Strategically
located in Riviera 7,
this unique area will feature pitching sessions
and a café to network and do business in.
retailtainment
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
13
WORLD LEISURE
Golden Door spa buys
land for food venture
The grounds of the Golden Door
wellness resort in California have
increased from 377 acres to 600
as it bids to cultivate produce and
become a respected food brand.
The spa’s COO, Kathy Van Ness,
told Leisure Management 100 per
cent of profits from the spa’s hospitality operation and food sales will
go to charity as the company puts a
greater focus on philanthropy.
The spa’s land expert, Jeff
Dawson, has brought in 30 chickens
to lay fresh eggs each morning and
a new computer-controlled greenhouse for growing leafy vegetables.
Van Ness said the plan is also to
produce branded olive oil and wine.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=g4z7Y
Beckham’s new Major League Soccer franchise hoped to build on the Miami waterfront
Beckham’s waterfront stadium plans rejected
The attraction will open in mid July
July opening for Universal
Japan’s Harry Potter world
Universal Studios Japan has
announced a 15 July opening for its
$500m (E362m, £297m) Wizarding
World of Harry Potter attraction.
The theme park hopes to build on
the 10.5 million visitors it received
in fiscal 2013, an improvement of
7.7 per cent from the previous year
and the second-highest figure since
its first year in fiscal 2001.
The new attraction is similar to
the one that opened at Universal
Orlando Resort in 2010, and is
expected to feature rides, immersive environments and outlets
based on the ever-popular Harry
Potter books and films.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=b6e6q
David Beckham’s plans for a football stadium on the Miami waterfront have been
rejected after the US city deemed the
proposed location “inappropriate,” leaving the former footballer’s Major League
Soccer (MLS) franchise plan in tatters.
Plans were afoot to build a US$200m
(E145m, £120m), 25,000-seat football
stadium for Beckham’s new MLS franchise, but proposed plans fell through
after the city vetoed the construction of a
stadium at a prime waterfront site.
The rejection is the second in the
space of a month for the former England
football captain, who had plans rejected
Les Mills CEO responds to ‘McDonalds of fitness’ barb
Phillip Mills has defended his company
14
for a similar proposal at the port of
Miami, which collapsed in the face of
public opposition.
Mayor Tomás Regalado, previously a
strong supporter of the project, said he
had changed his mind about the waterfront site and considered it inappropriate
for a football stadium after seeking
the opinions of local residents, leaving
Beckham’s investment group to consider
the options available to it.
Beckham is said not to be interested
in an inland option, leaving Miami with no
remaining waterfront options available.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=V3n5V
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
Phillip Mills, CEO of fitness giant Les
Mills, has rejected criticism that his company’s standardised classes have caused
the ‘McDonaldsisation’ of the fitness
industry, suggesting the critics misunderstand the purpose of the classes.
A study by two academics in Sweden
decried the standardisation of the fitness
industry, saying it had become uniform in
the same way as fast-food chains and suggested this model places limits on a fitness
instructor’s competence and creativity.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=k2w3a
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
WORLD LEISURE
Northern Italy’s Bologna
earmarked to be home of
‘foodie theme park’
Italian city Bologna is set to become home
to a US$55m (E40m, £33.4m) ‘foodie
theme park’ which is intended to celebrate
the finest facets of Italian cuisine.
The joint venture between Italian foodemporium chain Eataly – which boasts 26
stores worldwide, including a New York
City megastore co-owned by renowned
gastronomist Mario Batali – and the
Municipality of Bologna is expected to
be served up in November 2015 and will
cover 86,000sq ft (7,900sq m).
The land, which currently houses several abandoned warehouses, has been
provided by the city-controlled Centro Agro
Alimentare. It is to be transformed into
Fico Eataly World – a theme park featuring
restaurants, grocery stores, food labs, an
aquarium and other food-themed features.
Bologna – best known for its terracotta rooftops – will soon host a ‘Disneyland for foodies’
Speaking to an Italian news service,
Eataly founder Oscar Farinetti expressed
his excitement and announced his ambition to lure over 10 million visitors a year
to his attraction, inviting them to “play
with this magical thing: Italian food.”
Tourism is a major strength for Italy;
more than 46 million visitors spent
US$32.1bn (E23.3m, £19.3m) in 2012.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=u6Y7T
Palazzo Versace Dubai delayed by further 12 months
The Dubai resort development Palazzo
Versace has had its opening date pushed
back by another 12 months, having originally been expected to launch in 2010.
Developer Enshaa Services Group has
confirmed the AED2.3bn (£405m, E475m,
US$626m) Versace-branded resort will
not open until the second half of 2014 –
although it was previously expected to be
ready by the end of 2013 after missing
its original deadline – despite having been
declared “80 per cent complete” in 2010.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=P2h2D
Original masterplan for Rio 2016
IOC chief: Rio 2016
preparations ‘worst ever’
The resort includes a Versace boutique
Fitness industry ‘must take heed’ of microgym success
Microgyms like Fitness First’s BEAT are on trend
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
Leading figures from the health and fitness industry have today warned that
companies must adapt to the changing
market exemplified by the surge of microgyms to avoid being left behind.
At the UK 2014 active-net conference, Les
Mills’ Martin Franklin said microgyms had
proved a “disruptive influence” to the traditional gym model, indicating a market shift.
“We need to analyse, pick up on trends
and work out ways to integrate these into
our existing operations,” he added.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=4A3C5
Preparations for the Rio 2016
Olympic Games are the “worst ever
seen”, according to the vice president of the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) John Coates.
Coates, who has been involved
with the Olympic movement for 40
years, said the IOC was taking the
issue seriously and has already
acted by placing experts in the
Brazilian organising committee to
ensure the Games can go ahead.
Speaking at a forum in Australia,
he added that progress on the
Games infrastructure and venues
with two years to go was even worse
than the Athens Games in 2004.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=H4q7C
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
15
WORLD LEISURE
Hovering platform offers
vertiginous Rockies vista
Jasper National Park in the
Canadian Rockies has unveiled its
latest attraction – a suspended
glass platform hovering high above
the famous Columbia Glacier.
The CA$21m (US$19.2m, £11.4m,
E14m) Glacier Skywalk is made up of
a combination of structural steel and
glass with the Skywalk anchored into
the rock on the side of the mountain.
Visitors can travel to and from
the Skywalk from the Park’s Glacier
Discovery Centre, where they will see
six interactive interpretive stations.
There is also an audio tour along a
350m (1,148ft) walkway leading up to
the actual skywalk, which reaches up
to 280m (918ft) above the ground.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=N6Q7f
An artist’s impression of how the third tier will look at the home of the English league champions
PHOTO: STUDIO OCTOPI & PICTURE PLANE
Man City pushes forward Etihad stadium expansion
Swimming spaces are part of the plan
Architects look to London’s
Thames for wellness space
Wellness space is at a premium in
modern day cities and Studio Octopi,
a London-based architecture firm, is
diving head first into making more of
that by using London’s Thames as
an area for new development.
The London As It Could Be Now
competition, run by the Royal
Academy of Arts, asked multidisciplinary design teams to envisage new
ideas for sites along the Thames.
Studio Octopi suggested creating
pools at Blackfriars Bridge and the
King Edward Park in Shadwell, with
plans for two fixed pools, extending
to a height just below the high water
mark and rising with the tide.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=E9s8a
Manchester City Football Club (MCFC) has
appointed constructors Laing O’Rourke to
build the expansion of its Etihad Stadium.
The extension works, designed by architects Populous, are expected to cost £50m
and will be undertaken in two phases.
The work will result in the venue having
a capacity of 60,000 (up from the current
48,000) – making it the second largest
in the English Premier League behind Old
Trafford (capacity 75,811), home to local
rivals Manchester United.
The first phase of construction, which
will be completed in time for the 2015-16
season, will see the South Stand expanded
Donald Trump buys Scotland’s Turnberry golf course resort
Trump’s UK courses have enjoyed mixed fortunes
16
by around 6,000 seats. The second phase,
development of the North Stand, will then
complete the transformation. Ground engineering work has already begun.
Tom Glick, chief commercial officer for
MCFC, said: “The expansion of the stadium
is a hugely significant moment for us.
“The waiting list for the expanded Etihad
is already close to capacity and we look
forward to seeing a sell-out 54,000 seat
stadium as we open the 2015 season.”
The stadium, previously called City of
Manchester Stadium, was built by O’Rourke
for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=E2B9x
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
Donald Trump has made his latest foray into
the golf resort market with the purchase of
Turnberry in South Ayrshire, Scotland.
The US property tycoon has acquired
the entire Turnberry estate – including its
five star hotel boasting 145 guestrooms,
four ocean-view suites, an ESPA spa and
three golf courses. The sum Trump paid
remains undisclosed, but is thought to
be much less than the £52m (US$88m,
E63m) previous owner Leisurecorp paid
for the property in 2008, pre-recession.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=T2W2g
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
SPORT
Tom Daley Diving
Academy set to launch
in London
Olympic medallist Tom Daley has teamed
up with leisure centre and pool operator
GLL as part of efforts to create a lasting
diving legacy from the London Olympics.
The Tom Daley Diving Academy will
look to attract both adults and children to
take up the sport. The Academy will begin
operation at the GLL-managed London
Aquatics Centre – where Daley trains as
part of his British Diving High Performance
Programme – before being introduced at
other GLL managed UK facilities.
The academy will be available in three
types of facilities – fundamental centres,
delivering beginner courses for children
to learn the fundamentals of the sport;
Learn to Dive development centres, to
deliver beginner and improver classes for
children and adults; and academy centres,
The Olympic medallist has endorsed the academy saying it’s open to anyone interested in diving
delivering all levels of the programme.
The grass roots venture is being
endorsed and represented by Daley and
supported by a series of world class
coaches working across London.
Daley said: “The academy is giving everyone the chance to learn to dive. It’s about
getting people to try the sport, whether
they want to dive for fun or competitively.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=S9p2n
Roman Colosseum inspires new AS Roma stadium
Plans have been revealed for Italian premier league football club AS Roma’s new
52,000-seat stadium, inspired by the legendary colosseum of ancient Rome.
The proposed structure, designed
by London-based Woods Bagot, will
allow Roma to move out of its current
72,000-capacity stadium, which is also
home to the club’s bitter rivals Lazio.
To be located on the riverside at Tor di
Valle, the site will feature a hydraulic lift
– similar to that of the original Colosseum.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=b2e8G
The project has hit a setback
US town puts brakes on
BMX ‘epicentre’ facility
The stadium could also accommodate concerts
Gibraltar Stadium plans halted amid local opposition
The project is hoped to start by the end of 2014
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
The Gibraltar Football Association (GFA)
has been ordered by the Development
and Planning Commission (DPC) to cease
unauthorised work being carried out on
the proposed Europa Point stadium.
The order came last month when it was
discovered works including drilling had
been undertaken without the correct permissions, against a backdrop of strong
local opposition. The DPC also asked the
GFA to conduct an Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA) and report back.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=s4w3N
Gilbert, Arizona could still become
home to the ‘epicentre’ of BMX
riding in the US, if plans by the
country’s national body go through
and a timeline can be set on development by the town’s authority.
USA BMX is searching for a host
city to build the sports facility and
attraction, which would include a
purpose-built headquarters building,
relocation of the BMX Hall of Fame
(currently in Chula Vista, California),
athlete training facilities and an
indoor track with starting hills.
A statement issued by Gilbert said
parks and recreation would be prioritised over the BMX super facility.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=F8k6Z
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
17
TECHNOLOGY
New app offers remote
tour of Holocaust museum
A US company has unveiled an interactive multimedia website which
provides a virtual tour of the Riga
Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust
Museum from anywhere in the world.
An interactive map experience,
called Walk Among Memories, combines Google Street View with
archival photographs and multimedia survivor stories to allow people
to tour and learn about the Riga
Ghetto – a Nazi-designated area of
Latvia where Jews were forced to live
during the Second World War. The
website – which also includes six
survivor stories told as interactive
graphic novels – aims to show the
everyday reality of the Riga Ghetto.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=T3W7a
The San Francisco lab features a fitness centre for testing and tweaking new apps
Nike tech lab boosts wearable tech software expansion
The stadium will embrace innovation
Amsterdam ArenA signs
tech innovation deal
The Amsterdam ArenA, home to
Dutch football club Ajax, has signed
a deal with the Municipality of
Amsterdam in order to help secure
the stadium’s position as an innovative and progressive sporting venue.
The agreement will see the two
parties progress the use of smart
technological applications, allowing for the developed use of tablets
and smart-phones in the stadium.
In the coming years the stadium
will innovate the use of energy
grids, improved connectivity and
the use of applications for visitors
attending the venue and serve as a
testing ground for new ideas.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=G5v8A
Nike has signalled ambitions to dominate
the wearable tech and fitness app market
with the launch of a research and development lab in San Francisco, California.
The Nike+ Fuel Lab launched earlier this
month marks the latest development in
the company’s quest to make its NikeFuel
measurement system – whereby users
earn NikeFuel points for their levels of
activity – the universal standard for activity
tracking across digital platforms.
Nike’s range of fitness apps fall under
the Nike+ network – which is currently
used by 28 million people worldwide – and
the company hopes to build on partner-
Fitness brand takes to Snapchat to capture ‘millennials’
Snapchat is installed on 60m phones worldwide
18
ships it has established with popular
third-party options including weight loss
app MyFitnessPal, running companion
RunKeeper, and tracking app Strava to
take this figure past the 100 million mark.
The company says it is cumbersome
to try and compare fitness performances
across myriad measurement systems
with NikeFuel as its solution. At the San
Francisco lab, which also features a fitness centre for testing and tweaking new
apps, third party fitness companies can
work alongside Nike to integrate NikeFuel
into their existing products.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=m2C6E
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
Antipodean training provider the Australian
Institute of Fitness (AIF) has become one
of the first fitness brands to utilise the
photo-messaging app Snapchat.
Increasingly popular among 13-24 year
olds, the app presents a strong opportunity for fitness companies to tap into the
difficult-to-reach millennials market, also
known as ‘Generation Y’. The app enables
users to send pictures to their friends
which display for a short period of time –
typically 10 seconds – before deleting.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=U3T6T
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
HEALTH & FITNESS
Inactivity a greater heart
risk than smoking: study
Physical inactivity poses a greater
risk of heart disease in women over
30 than obesity, high blood pressure or smoking, a study has found.
Researchers from the University
of Queensland found that inactivity remains the greatest population
risk factor for heart disease among
women all the way into their 80s.
Although smoking was the most
serious risk factor for women aged
22 to 27, data showed that these
risks drop off as women reached
30, with physical inactivity becoming the biggest cause of heart
problems. The study concluded that
many lives could be saved if exercise guidelines were followed.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=b7n8h
Virgin Active was founded by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group in 1999
Virgin Active reportedly poised for £1bn flotation
Southeast Asia remains a key target
Fitness First expansion
planned for Asia market
Fitness First has announced it
will invest more than US$140m
(E101m, £83m) over the next five
years as it bids to grow its footprint
in Asia by around 60 per cent.
At present, there are 88 Fitness
First Asia clubs – spread across
Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia,
the Philippines, Singapore and
Thailand – and the chain intends
to open a further 50 fitness clubs
in the region by 2018, expected to
cost US$100m (E72m, £59m).
A further US$42m (E30m, £25m)
will be invested in upgrading existing Asia facilities, in line with the
company’s global brand makeover.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=b5X2Z
Virgin Active is lining up a potential £1bnplus float or sale, with the company close
to appointing advisers on the process,
according to several UK press reports.
The health club giant recently
announced a 10 per cent increase in
underlying profits – it was also recently
named Europe’s leading health club chain
in terms of revenue – and is reportedly
eager to cash in on its strong position.
Virgin Active is believed to have hired
City IPO consultancy firm STJ Advisors to
sound out interest from investment banks,
according to The Times. It added that a primary listing would probably be sought in
Could wearable tech solve childhood inactivity crisis?
The tracker is intended for kids aged 4 to 7
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
London, with a secondary listing in South
Africa, where Virgin Active has 100 clubs.
The company is owned by Richard
Branson’s Virgin Group and CVC Capital
Partners – the private equity firm
which owned a large stake in Merlin
Entertainments when it successfully
floated in November. Virgin Active has
been open about its IPO ambitions in the
past and has come close to going public several times. However, press reports
claims that the gym chain – which has
270 clubs worldwide – also remains open
to a secondary private equity buyout.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=A3M3q
US-based company LeapFrog has unveiled
one of the first wearable activity trackers
designed to promote exercise to children.
The LeapBand encourages active play
and healthy habits with the incentive of
earning points to nurture a ‘tamagotchilike’ personalised virtual pet.
The activity tracker features 50 different
activities and challenges and, as the child
earns points through active play, they can
unlock additional games, challenges and
virtual rewards for their on-screen pet.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=A9s3h
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
19
ATTRACTIONS
Puy du Fou-style theme
park for Auckland Castle
French theme park Puy du Fou
has announced it will partner with
Auckland Castle in the UK to create
its first international location.
The historical re-enactment park
– which is located in the Vendée
region of Western France – has
signed a deal with the Eleven
Arches Trust to create a visitor
attraction in County Durham.
The project is the brainchild of
entrepreneur Jonathan Ruffer, who
bought Auckland Castle in 2012
and handed it to Auckland Castle
Trust to transform into a worldclass tourist destination as part of
a £50m ($84m, E61m) investment.
The theme park will open in 2020.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=U2h3Z
Chimelong Ocean Kingdom has set five records, including the largest underwater viewing dome
World’s largest aquarium makes waves in China
A new US$806.5m ( E587m, £486m)
aquatic theme park in China has broken
five Guinness World Records on opening and is now officially recognised as the
largest aquarium on the planet.
Chimelong Ocean Kingdom is the brainchild of PGAV Destinations, which served
as the attraction’s lead strategist, planner, designer, and product developer. It is
the company’s first full theme park design
in Asia, although PGAV has previously
designed Hong Kong’s Grand Aquarium and
a museum attraction in Xi’an, China.
The park was constructed over a threeyear period, and is part of Chimelong
Hengqin Bay Hotel, the largest ocean ecological-themed hotel in China. Both the park
and the hotel are owned by the Chimelong
Group, which has invested more than
US$3.3bn (E2.4bn, £1.99bn).
As well as the largest aquarium accolade,
Chimelong Ocean Kingdom has set records
for having the world’s biggest underwater
viewing dome, aquarium window, acrylic
panel, and aquarium tank, which contains
22.7m litres of water. There are seven
themed areas inside the park, each representing a part of the ocean, plus rides,
thousands of animals and a 5D cinema.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=y5r2r
National Corvette Museum capitalises on huge sinkhole
The sinkhole has become a major attraction
20
A sinkhole which was initially a major
catastrophe for Kentucky’s National
Corvette Museum has turned out to be
a blessing in disguise as the sinkhole –
which swallowed eight cars – has become
a popular tourist attraction.
In February, the US museum gained
global attention when the sinkhole opened
up, swallowing eight classic Corvettes
into the earth. All of the vehicles have
now been recovered from the 40-foot (12
metre) wide by 30-foot (9m) deep chasm.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=T4p4c
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
Lionel Messi after winning in 2011
Step into Messi’s boots at
pop-up soccer museum
A temporary Champions League
museum and gallery has opened in
Lisbon in the run-up to the final of
the prestigious football tournament
being held in the city.
The UEFA Champions Gallery
showcases 150 iconic photos,
while the UEFA Champions Museum
houses a range of memorabilia
– including match programmes
from every previous final, the right
boot and shirt Barcelona’s Lionel
Messi wore during the 2009 final
and Eusébio’s jersey from 1963.
The gallery is located at Paços do
Concelho in Lisbon City Hall and the
museum in Sala do Risco in Páteo
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=a5k8d
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
SPA
Middle East and Africa
primed for wellness
tourism surge, says study
Although the smallest global wellness
travel market, the Middle East/African
region will lead the industry charge as the
largest driver of growth until 2017, according to newly-released data from the Global
Wellness Tourism Congress (GWTC).
The research, undertaken by SRI
International for the GWTC, was released
at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) event
in Dubai. It offers separate analysis of
the Middle East/North African and SubSaharan African regions, finding that the
former ranks first in the world for tourism
growth (16.2 per cent annually) with market expansion from US$5.3bn (E3.8bn,
£3.1bn) in 2012 to US$16.6bn (E11.9bn,
£9.8bn) in 2017. The Sub-Saharan
African wellness tourism market is forecast to grow by 12.6 per cent annually,
High end spa and hotel resorts like Atlantis The Palm in Dubai are driving wellness tourism
from US$2bn ( 1.4bn, £1.2bn) in 2012 to
US$5.1bn ( 3.7bn, £3bn) by 2017. This will
be driven by South Africa, whose well-established spa and wellness destinations and
travel sector make it the pan-regional leader
in terms of trips and expenditures. The
Middle East/North African surge will be led
by UAE, which is expected to add one million wellness trips from 2012 to 2017.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=V8N9f
Andrew Gibson excited by new brief as spa vp at FRHI
The new vice president of spa and
wellness at Fairmont Raffles Hotels
International (FRHI), Andrew Gibson – formerly group director of spa at Mandarin
Oriental – has revealed spa development
strategies for the private company’s three
chains – Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel.
Gibson told Leisure Management that
FRHI will allow him to “play with some ideas
that Mandarin Oriental might not have been
so receptive to because it already had a
very good tried and tested formula.”
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=y2G9Z
The move to plus size ‘reflects demand’
Spa bookings agency adds
‘plus size’ category
Gibson’s new role is “much more strategic”
Dubai spa owner jailed for trying to bribe inspector
The women-only spa offered massages to men
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
A businesswoman has been jailed for six
months for offering a bribe to an inspector to stop him reporting that she was still
offering massages to men at her womenonly spa in the Persian Gulf – despite
previously receiving a ban for doing so.
On 5 May the 46-year-old Chinese businesswoman, referred to as J.W, was fined
AED2,000 (US$545, E394 £322) by the
Dubai Court of First Instance and was
advised that she will be deported back to
China after serving her prison sentence.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=b2Y4B
UK spa bookings agency spaseekers.com has introduced a ‘plus
size’ spa category to its website to
help visitors identify the nation’s
size-friendly wellness facilities.
The agency – which represents
over 500 spas across the UK – has
received an increasing number of
customers requesting larger bath
robes, bigger towels and wider
treatment couches. Some of these
spas offer spacious individual
changing rooms, larger shower cubicles and wider dining chairs without
arm rests. The ‘plus size’ category
is designed to help consumers find
spas for all shapes and sizes.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=H7M6r
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
21
HOSPITALITY
Ritz-Carlton to operate
Mumbai development
Mumbai-based company Oberoi
Realty has announced The RitzCarlton Hotel company as its
hospitality partner for the 2.1 million sq ft (0.2m sq m) mixed-use
Worli Development in Mumbai.
The two high-rise towers are being
developed by Oasis Realty – a joint
venture between Oberoi and Sahana
Group. The project will include a
140-apartment tower and a mixeduse tower comprising commercial
office space and the 280-key RitzCarlton hotel – which will feature an
ocean-view bar, spa and banquet
spaces. Ritz-Carlton will manage
the hotel and apartments – both
expected to open late 2016.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=f4m5z
The Harmon Hotel at the Las Vegas CityCentre will be slowly dismantled over the next year
Demolition approved for unopened Vegas Harmon Hotel
Moevenpick wants to ‘harmonise’ plans
Moevenpick Hotels seeks
Africa expansion strategy
Moevenpick Hotels plans to create
a spa management structure for its
North African and Tunisian forays,
according to Moevenpick Gammarth
Tunis spa manager Jihen Derbel.
“We are hoping to create a spa
concept which harmonises the high
standards and efficient procedures
we employ in our facilities,” said
Derbel. “Expansion opportunities in
Africa are increasing and we need
better infrastructure. Our customers are experiencing other kinds
of spas so we want to make sure
we are offering something unique
across our portfolio of individual
spas,” Derbel continued.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=N2F4b
Foster + Partners’ unfinished Harmon Hotel
on the Las Vegas strip is set to be demolished without even opening its doors.
On 22 April, MGM Resorts International
received approval to tear down Foster +
Partners’ failing structure owing to reinforcing steel not being correctly installed
on 15 floors of the 47 story building.
The building was intended to provide
207 luxury residences and 400 hotel
bedrooms, as well as a spa and several restaurants. It was also part of the
27-hectare CityCentre development by
MGM, which also features an ARIA Resort
and Casino, Vdara Hotel and Spa, and
Shard ‘Mirror effect’ offers guests an unexpected vista
The Shard was already renowned for its views
22
Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas, as well as
a luxury shopping destination.
The construction gaffe has cost
US$279m (E203m, £165m) plus another
US$11.5m (E8.3m, £6.8m) to dismantle.
In a statement, Gordon Absher, a
spokesperson for MGM said: “CityCenter
consulted with experts about the fastest
and safest way to resolve public safety
concerns created by the structural defect
issues at the Harmon.” Unlike the spectacles of old Vegas hotels being blown up
with explosives, the demolition will see
the building coming down floor by floor.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=g8W9e
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
Guests at the newly-opened Shangri-La
Hotel in London’s The Shard are being
warned to close the blinds at night as the
glass structure’s panels make it sometimes possible to see into other rooms.
Some of the glass acts as an inadvertent mirror when lights are on, so the advice
is being issued to maintain guests’ privacy.
Darren Gearing, general manager, said:
“In some rooms guests may be able to
glimpse into a neighbour’s room, so blinds
are available for guest privacy.”
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=f5E3S
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
TOURISM
UK music heritage could
be worth extra £4bn in
tourism revenues: study
Cashing in on the tourism possibilities provided by music stars like David Bowie, The
Beatles and the Arctic Monkeys could raise
an additional £4bn ($6.7bn, E5bn) for the
UK economy, according to a new report.
IMAGINE, a study by industry lobby
group UK Music, claims that if UK cities
could replicate Liverpool’s success in harnessing The Beatles brand with attractions
dedicated to their own homegrown stars,
the potential for inbound tourism from
across the world would be enormous.
Liverpool has been a standard bearer
with popular attractions like The Beatles
Story and The Beatles Magical Mystery
Tour. Each year The Beatles and their
music heritage generate £70m ($6.7bn,
E5bn) for Liverpool’s local economy.
The report cites the example of Hull –
The Fab Four sparked Beatlemania when they hit the US in 1964, and still remain popular worldwide
which will soon follow Liverpool’s lead in
becoming the City of Culture in 2017 –
where the city’s Museum of Club Culture
hosted a temporary exhibition celebrating
David Bowie’s alter ego Ziggy Stardust.
Ziggy’s backing band – the Spiders from
Mars – were from Hull and the resulting
attraction drew 30,000 visitors to the City,
all of whom added to the local economy.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=r9y7E
Singapore tourism video goes viral for wrong reasons
Singapore’s tourism body has removed a
promotional video targeting Filipino tourists after the advert went viral, gaining
critical panning from its online viewers.
The three-minute clip shows a Filipino
couple taking in the sights of Singapore,
before at the end of the clip the woman
hands the man a pregnancy test kit to
which the man says that “Singapore
always has a surprise waiting for me.”
Online commenters have labelled the
video “cheesy” and “poorly-produced.”
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=j3F9X
London’s sights helped lure in tourists
London pips Paris to be
world’s top destination
The video’s poor dubbing attracted online derision
World’s first wellness travel awards announced for 2014
The awards will look at spas across the globe
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
Spafinder Wellness 365 has announced
the first ever awards programme totally
dedicated to spas, hotels, resorts and
retreats offering wellness experiences.
The annual Wellness Travel Awards
will be given to top properties worldwide
in numerous special categories, such
as “Best for Getting Fit” and “Best New
Wellness Travel Property.” Wellness tourism has been identified as a growing trend
and already represents one in every seven
tourism dollars spent worldwide.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=q5T2n
London has beaten off Paris to
claim the title of most popular city
with foreign tourists in the world,
with the latest figures showing that
a stellar performance in 2013 propelled it to the number one spot.
According to data released by the
Office for National Statistics (ONS),
the UK’s capital attracted 16.8 million visitors in 2013, with combined
spending topping £11.2bn ($18.8bn,
E13.7bn). The amount spent by overseas visitors to London has almost
doubled in the past decade, driven
by significant growth in the booming
Asian, South American and Middle
Eastern inbound tourism markets.
Read more: http://lei.sr?a=U4b5a
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
23
DESIGN NEWS
DESIGN NEWS
A sunken park in the desert, a legendary lido and the latest offering from Ace Hotels
PHOTOS: © MARTIN SCHUBERT
OThe
1,300-seat concert hall is at the core of the U-shaped building, which features three further performance spaces
House of Music opens in Denmark
After four years of construction, the
House of Music, in Aalberg, Denmark,
was opened this spring by the Danish
Queen, Margrethe II.
The centre, which was designed
by Viennese architectural practice
Coop Himmelb(l)au, is a combined
concert hall and school. It features a
1,300 seat concert hall with rehearsal
and training rooms arranged around
it and a five storey-high foyer which
acts as a meeting place for students,
teachers and visitors. Three more
performance rooms are situated
24
Project: House of Music
Design: Coop Himmelb(l)au
Location: Aalberg, Denmark
under the foyer: the classic hall, the
rhythmic hall and the intimate hall.
The flowing lines inside the building
contrast with the strict, cube shape
of the outer structure. The acoustic
concept was developed with Arup’s
Tateo Nakajima, with the seats
arranged so that visitors get the best
possible acoustics at all times.
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
OThe building’s exterior is boxy, in contrast
with the curved, fluid interiors
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
PHOTOS: ACE HOTEL DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES, COURTESY OF ATELIER ACE BYSPENCER LOWELL
OTheatre architect Howard
Crane originally designed the
United Artists building, which
opened in December 1927
Project: Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles
Design: Atelier Ace & Commune Design
Location: Los Angeles, US
Ace Hotels launches In LA
Hip boutique hotel chain Ace
Hotels has launched its latest
property in Los Angeles’
historic United Artists
building. Originally designed
by architect Howard Crane
District’. The interiors take
the Los Angeles design
of the 1920s and 1930s as
their inspiration, and feature
182 bedrooms, an in-house
restaurant, a rooftop bar
for the United Artists film
studio, the 18-storey building
and pool and an Undefeated
gym. The restored 1,600
opened in 1927 and was used
as a movie theatre until 1974.
Atelier Ace worked with
Commune Design to restore
the United Artists building
and theatre. The exterior
façade was stripped, cleaned
and restored, ‘as it would
have looked in the heydey
of the Broadway Theater
movie theatre is available for
concerts, private screenings,
premieres and events.
In the movie theatre, the
original murals and intricate
plaster and metalwork and
theatre seats were reclaimed
and restored, while a new
Art Deco style ticket booth
was installed.
The theatre in the Ace Hotel
Los Angeles still has its vaulted
ceilings, intricate metal and
plasterwork and painted murals
26
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
The LA Chapter brasserie features
black and white tiled floors and
mirrored walls (above); The
Spanish Gothic exterior (below)
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Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
27
DESIGN
DESIGNNEWS
NEWS
PHOTOS: © HEATHERWICK STUDIOS
A shaded garden will grow beneath the ‘cracked desert’
Plans revealed
for Abu Dhabi
Sunken Desert
Plans have been unveiled to build a
125,000sq m (410,105sq ft) desert
oasis in the shape of the Al Fayah
Park in the city of Abu Dhabi.
The park incorporates a series
of column structures, designed to
resemble cracked pieces of a desert
surface, which provide partial
Project: Al Fayah Park
Scheduled to open to the public
in 2017 – with work starting as soon
shade, allowing a lush garden
to grow underneath. It will also
as the design stage is finished by
architects Heatherwick Studios
in late 2014 – the park will offer a
variety of open spaces with exercise
paths and picnic areas.
feature organic fruit and vegetable
gardens, which will supply its cafés.
The Salama Bint Hamdan Al
Nahyan Foundation is the developer
behind the scheme.
Design: Heatherwick Studios
Location: Abu Dhabi
The hotel offers views of the Al Hajar mountains
Mountainside resort opens in Oman
The Alila Jabal Akhdar, Alila’s first hotel in the Middle East,
has opened in Oman. Designed by architecture firm Atkins,
with interiors by P49, the resort is perched on the edge of
a cliff amid dramatic mountainous scenery.
It features 78 suites and two villas, two restaurants, an
outdoor and an indoor pool, a gym and the Spa Alila.
Locally sourced materials and traditional artisanal
craftmanship were used in the construction of the hotel,
while the interiors blend traditional Omani elements with
28
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
Project: Alila Jabal Akhdar
Design: Atkins / P49
Location: Oman
contemporary, minimalist design. Atkins worked with
geologists and structural engineers to overcome the
challenges presented by the remoteness of the site, teh
access difficulties and the very harsh weather.
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The hotel will feature extensive use of glass and concrete
Europe’s first Nobu Hotel to open in London
Nobu Hospitality – a chain famous for its Michelin-starred
sushi, celebrity partners including Robert de Niro, and its
glitterati clientele – is opening its first hotel in Europe.
The site, located in the Shoreditch area of London, will
be built in the chain’s signature ‘east meets west’ style.
London-based Ben Adams Architects and Californian
Studio PCH are collaborating on the design of the project.
and that the chain is “continuing to expand its global
hotel footprint with a robust development pipeline, while
The hotel, currently under construction, is due to open in
the first quarter of 2016. It will feature 156 rooms, a fitness
working with the best strategic partners.”
Five stories will be stacked on top of each other with
centre and meeting/banqueting spaces.
Trevor Horwell, chief executive of Nobu Hospitality,
noted this would be the company’s first European hotel
fractured beams overhanging each level, attempting to
create a ‘fun-luxury experience’ as well as keeping the
Project: Nobu Hotel
Design: Ben Adams Architects/PCH
Location: London, UK
brand’s cool persona at the forefront of the design.
Legendary Paris lido restored
Project: Piscine Molitor
Design: Jean-Philippe Nuel
Location: Paris, France
Paris’s legendary outdoor swimming
pool, Piscine Molitor, has opened
within the new Molitor Paris hotel
from Accor’s MGallery.
Originally opened in 1928, the 50m
pool was once one of the French
capital’s most fashionable spots; the
OIt
is now open for hotel guests
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
world’s first bikini was launched there,
and Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller
was once a lifeguard there.
By the 1980s, however, it had fallen
into disrepair, and the pool was
closed in 1989. Over the subsequent
years, the abandoned building
became a magnet for ravers and
graffitti artists, before a local group,
SOS Molitor, began campaigning to
reopen the pool.
The project was undertaken by
the Bouygues construction group
working in partnership with Accor,
with funding from investment
company Colony Capital.
Interiors are by Jean-Philippe Nuel
and architecture is by Perrot and
Richards. The building houses a 124
room hotel, a spa, a restaurant, gym
and rooftop bar, which will be used to
host a range of events. O
29
ARCHITECT FOCUS
S
ince opening in 2012, the
£350m cooled conservatories at Gardens by the
Bay in Singapore have won
numerous awards – most
recently the coveted RIBA Lubetkin
Prize in September 2013 for best new
international building – with judges
applauding the design team for pushing
the boundaries of environmental and
structural design. The two giant biomes
are carbon positive – no mean feat considering the amount of energy needed
to keep plants cool in a sub-tropical climate like Singapore's – and explore
how plants in the Mediterranean and
cloud forest environments could be
affected by climate change.
The project is made up of three
waterfront gardens: Bay South, Bay
East and Bay Central; the cooled
conservatories are located in Bay
South and were designed by architect
Wilkinson Eyre, landscape architect
Grant Associates, structural engineer
Atelier One and environmental design
consultant Atelier Ten.
The 12,800sq m Flower Dome is
home to a collection of plants from
Mediterranean regions around the
world, and features lavender fields,
olive groves and giant baobab trees.
The 7,300sq m Cloud Forest Dome
tells the story of plants that grow in
cool tropical cloud forests. It features
a 'mountain' covered in lush vegetation from which a 35m waterfall drops
down. Within the 'mountain', exhibition spaces explore the impact of
30
PAUL
BAKER
Creating giant cooled conservatories in Singapore's
subtropical climate in an environmentally sensible way
required clever thinking, says Wilkinson Eyre's Paul Baker
Q The Cloud Forest Dome features
an artifical, plant-covered mountain,
which visitors can climb
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
incremental changes to the earth's
temperature and explain the sustainable technologies used in the creation
of the cooled conservatories.
Gardens by the Bay also features 18 supertrees, designed by
Grant Associates, which are home to
thousands of plants and feature photovoltaic cells to harvest solar energy.
The biomes have been designed to
cast as little shadow as possible, while
highly selective glass filters out heat
from the sun. Retractable shades are
used to control light levels and limit the
heat gain when the sun is out.
The energy used to cool the biomes
comes from an on-site biomass CHP
system fired by horticultural waste.
The wider development is also fitted
with arrays of photovoltaic panels.
Here project architect Paul Baker
discusses the project.
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
How did you get involved with
the Gardens by the Bay project?
We'd worked with the landscape architect Andrew Grant of Grant Associates
for many years on various projects,
including the Alpine House at Kew
Gardens (a small, cooled Alpine plant
conservatory). He was contacted by the
National Parks Board of Singapore and
he phoned us and said, 'There's this
mad competition for a fantastic park in
Singapore. Do you fancy joining us?'
We teamed up with structural engineers Atelier One and environmental
design consultants Atelier Ten, and put
a lot of energy into the competition.
From our work on the Alpine House
at Kew, we understood that the plants
determine the brief and that to make
a particular type of plant grow well,
you need a certain range of circumstances. There's no point working on
a monster visitor attraction where the
plants look shrivelled up and unhappy.
Q Gardens by the Bay is a key
part of the government's vision
to create a 'city in a garden'
We hit on the idea
quite early on that we'd
like to put a mountain
inside the Cloud Forest
Dome, because that's
not something you
do very often!
What was the brief?
To design two different environments
of a very significant scale; one for
Mediterranean plants and one for
tropical but high altitude plants.
– inside the Mediterranean dome.
We quickly understood that we
weren't conditioning the total volume
of air inside the biomes, because that
would be insane. The idea of layering
the heat or cool became logical. In the
Mediterranean biome, the valley shape
works really well for cooling. The cool
air comes around the perimeter and
kind of tumbles down the valley, then
sits at the lowest point. In the Cloud
Forest dome, we made the mountain
itself a machine to supply air – it has
lots of holes in it and the air tumbles
down, cooling the plants.
How did the idea for the
biomes develop?
We hit on the idea quite early on that
we'd like to put a mountain inside the
Cloud Forest Dome, because you don't
get the opportunity to do that very
often! We then liked the idea of creating the opposite – a kind of valley
How did the solar
supertrees come about?
They were Andrew Grant's brainchild. There was a danger that a newly
planted landscape on reclaimed land
would be a bit flat and wouldn't have
enough draw. Andrew was keen to
create some height and interest.
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
We had a biomass boiler, and we
knew that we didn't want to expel hot
air at ground level. It became clear
that a few chimneys were needed, and
we realised we could dress them with
the supertrees. It all fitted together.
Because Singapore is so humid,
plants sit quite happily on trees and
other structures, so we could have
plants clinging to a frame on the supertrees. The client and Andrew were keen
to demonstrate really creative horticulture; to be really out there and exciting
and make it different.
We designed a bar with panoramic
views in one of the highest supertrees.
They took on a life of their own.
What was the aim of the
Gardens by the Bay project?
The Singapore government has done
a lot to promote leisure on Sentosa
Island, with the introduction of big
resorts and casinos. The Gardens by
the Bay project was part of a plan to
balance that with a more cultural story.
The idea was to build on the success of Singapore's Botanic Garden
and create a new pleasure garden. The
park is open and free, and gives something back to everyone in Singapore,
while also maximising the value of the
land around the site.
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
31
ARCHITECT FOCUS: PAUL BAKER, WILKINSON EYRE
The supertrees provide shade by
day and come alive with lighting
and projected media by night.
Some of them feature photovoltaic
cells and some act as air exhausts
for the cooled conservatories
The glasshouses are carbon
neutral. How did you achieve this?
A cooled conservatory is a tough one
to pull off in an environmentally sensible way, because glasshouses like
to get hot and not cold. That's where
having a good team was fundamental.
Thinking about conditioning the places
where the people and plants are, not
the whole volume, was key.
We were very focused on the envelope being as efficient as possible.
The biomes are bobble shaped, with
minimum surface area and maximum
enclosed space. They are also responsive, with fabric sails that extend
across the biomes to stop heat gain
when the sun is out.
Next, we needed to find an energy
source. We looked at all the typical
sources of cooling – water, the ground,
wind and solar – but none worked. The
sea is warm in Singapore, there's no
shift in temperature between day and
night, there are no seasons. There's
no free energy sink.
Singapore has lots of rain trees
that have been planted along most of
the highways and roads. These are
cut frequently to provide optimum
shade, with the pruned branches
going to landfill or being used as compost. We realised they could be a
great source of energy so we decided
to burn them in an on-site steam
biomass boiler, which provides energy
to cool the domes.
It means that we don't have to ship
them from anywhere complicated;
they're available on the island. It
became a great story.
PHOTO: ©MAX TAN
ARCHITECT FOCUS: PAUL BAKER, WILKINSON EYRE
Why was it so important to be
environmentally responsible?
The thrust of our argument was that if
we can do the cooling of conservatories – one of the trickiest things to do
in a carbon responsible way – that's
a great message for Singapore to put
out there. The visitors to Gardens by
the Bay are quite diverse and their
awareness of climate issues is not
as great as in the UK, so it seemed
like a good place to start telling some
stories about climate change. We
worked with Land Design on a projection in the Cloud Forest Dome called
+ Five Degrees, which illustrates what
would happen if the temperature of the
earth rose by five degrees.
Can you describe the design of
the two domes?
We designed two distinct domes,
differently shaped, but with a very
strong synergy, directly responding to
Project In brief: Cooled Conservatories, Bay South, Singapore Gardens by the Bay
O THE BUILDING
Envelope: Low-e coated glazing.
Automated retractable fabric shades
Project value: £350m
Gross area:
The Flower Dome 12,800sq m
The Cloud Forest 7,300sq m
Structure: Composite structure
comprised of a steel gridshell
supported by a superstructure of
radially arranged steel 'ribs'
34
Renewable energy systems: A
biomass combined heat and power
system fired from horticultural and
other waste, with a useable thermal
output of 5.8MW and electrical
output of 1,000kW. In addition to
these approximately 100kWp of
photovoltaic panels are installed
within the wider development.
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
O THE TEAM
Architecture: Wilkinson Eyre
Landscape architecture:
Grant Associates
Environmental design
consulting: Atelier Ten
Structural engineering: Atelier One
Exhibition design:
Land Design Studio
Branding and signage:
Thomas Matthews
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
We wanted the biomes to be elegant and beautiful and
appealing in every possible way, and we wanted to design
them sensibly from an environmental perspective
the climate within each one.
The two biomes offer very different experiences. The Mediterranean
Dome is much wider, lower and softer
in form than the Cloud Forest Dome.
There's no prescriptive journey; you
arrive high, then walk down through
the space along terraces and walkways, following your own route. The
Cloud Forest Dome is very different;
you arrive low and your journey takes
you to the top, then there's a very prescriptive route as you walk down.
They're both fun, and a good contrast to one another. The cloud forest
environment is wet and cold, and quite
loud because of the waterfall. The
Mediterranean biome is calmer and
quieter and the colours are much richer.
What were the biggest
challenges of the project?
Doing it in an environmentally
responsible way, but making it look
effortless. We wanted it to be elegant
and beautiful and appealing in every
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
possible way, while doing it sensibly
from an environmental perspective.
What drew you to a
career in architecture?
I always wanted to be an architect. I
don't know where it came from, but
there was never any doubt about what
I wanted to do. I studied at Oxford
Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes
University). My first job was during a
year out, when I went to work for my
tutor, John Craig, at Aldington, Craig
and Collinge. John Craig was a great
tutor and a powerful influence. When I
left college I worked for Covent Garden
Housing Project for eight years, before
joining Wilkinson Eyre 24 years ago.
I became passionately interested in
doing cultural projects with a message.
Where are your favourite
places on earth?
I like my garden in Dorset, and I
wouldn't say no to the Maldives or to
the top of a mountain somewhere.
What inspires you?
I love looking at art and visiting galleries and museums – that generates
ideas. I also love being outdoors and
looking at plants and nature.
Are you working on any
other leisure projects?
We're currently doing a refurbishment
of the Wellcome Collection on Euston
Road in London, which will open this
September with a whole range of new
floors and gallery spaces.
We're working on the Crown Sydney
Hotel Resort on Sydney Harbour – a
big waterfront development which will
feature hotels rooms and suites, a
casino, restaurants, a spa and a residential component. That's due for
completion in 2019.
We're also working on the Carlsberg
Brewhouse project – a visitor centre in
a redundant brewery in Copenhagen.
The starting point for that project is
four giant granite elephants! That's
due to open in 2017. O
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35
HEALTH & FITNESS
Inspired by his childhood in West Africa, Amen Iseghohi launched
Amenzone, a chain of back-to-basics gyms that bans mirrors and uses
recycled tyres to get its members fit. Magali Robathan finds out more
36
Mirrors and tvs are banned and
the walls of Amenzone gyms are
covered with quotes and messages
designed to inspire members
We don’t allow mirrors or tvs, and because
people aren’t plugged into their headphones,
they communicate with each other a lot more
L
aunched by founder Amen
Iseghohi in 2008, Amenzone
Fitness is based on a minimalist approach that uses nothing
but tyres and members’ body
strength and movement to get
fit. Classes include boxing, ‘primal fitness,’ yoga and ‘rebel workout’ – all
using the tyres in different ways.
The first Amenzone gym opened
in Scottsdale, Arizona in June 2008.
Since then, Amenzone Fitness
Corporate has opened two further
gyms in Arizona, both in 2013.
Amenzone launched its franchising business in 2012 and there are
now six franchise gyms open across
the US, with a further 23 franchises
sold. The first Amenzone outside
Arizona opened in Manhattan Beach,
California in September 2013. A second California gym is due to open in
Santa Monica later this summer.
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
How did you get the
idea for Amenzone?
I was born in Belgium but raised in
London. When I was eight, my parents
decided they wanted me and my sister
to have a deeper understanding of our
heritage and a greater appreciation of
what was really important in life, so
they took us to live in West Africa.
At first I thought it was some kind
of punishment – coming from somewhere we’d had so many privileges,
waking up and eating cereal and
watching cartoons, I suddenly found
myself in a place with no television,
no electricity – it was very primal.
My grandmother [who was a former
athlete] wanted to keep us active. The
compound we lived on was filled with
tyres, so she used them as a way of
keeping us fit, but also as a tool to
teach us about life. We’d race the tyres,
and when we felt like giving up she’d
say, no, you can’t give up in life; you
have to keep going. You need to move
forward, just as a tyre turns and moves.
When I moved to America in 2003, I
immediately noticed that the obesity
rate was so significant. I realised it
wasn’t a local or city problem, it was a
global epidemic. I thought about it and
thought, this issue isn’t so much about
the lack of fitness and good nutrition.
It’s a disease rooted in a problem that
everyone seems to be ignoring. If you
don’t feel good about yourself, you
don’t care what you do to yourself. My
grandmother used fitness as a tool
to motivate us, but she was always
focused on our self-esteem. I thought,
that’s it – the reason I’m in shape is
that I feel good about who I am.
I decided to build my business, and
the non profit foundation that runs
alongside it, on the same premise,
which is that you should build self-
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
37
HEALTH & FITNESS
AMENZONE
FITNESS
HISTORY
JUNE 2008
Amenzone Fitness
launches its first
gym, in North
Scottsdale, Arizona
2012
Amenzone launches
its franchising efforts
MARCH 2013
Amenzone Fitness opens
in Fountain Hills, Arizona
JUNE 2013
Amenzone
Fitness opens in South
Scottsdale, Arizona
SEPT 2013
First Amenzone
Fitness opens outside
of Arizona, with the
launch of Amenzone
Fitness Manhattan
Beach, California
esteem first. We’re using fitness as a
vehicle for self empowerment.
I had corporate jobs when I first
moved to the US – first for Coca
Cola then for flooring company Shaw
Industries. My vision for Amenzone
started with one kid and one tyre in a
park. I gave up my corporate job where
I was making more than $100,000 a
year, and took one of the biggest risks
of my life to work on this.
How do you build selfesteem through your gyms?
We don’t allow mirrors in our gyms
and we have inspirational quotes on
the wall, so that instead of looking at
themselves while they work out, our
members read powerful messages.
We also don’t have any tvs, and
because people aren’t plugged into
their headphones, they communicate
with each other a lot more. That’s
been really successful, because a
lot of folks are tired of going to gyms
where you don’t talk to anyone, you
just watch tv and run on a treadmill.
It’s a way of going back to basics.
At the end of each class, the trainers pass on an inspirational message
to the class, then they hold open the
door for the members, shake each and
every one of them by hand and thank
The tyres are colour coded by
weight. Instructors try to build selfesteem and connect with members
them for taking the time to be there.
It means the trainers make a personal connection with everyone and
get to know them. A small thing like
that can make a big difference.
At Amenzone it’s about more
than just fitness. It’s about working
from the inside out, working on the
spiritual and the mental aspect as
well as the physical aspect.
How do you use tyres
in your classes?
The tyres are really just a prop – we
tell people they can use anything in
their environment. In my case, tyres
were what I had, so that’s what I used.
We have hundreds of exercises you
can do with just one tyre. Once you’ve
done our classes, you’ll never see a
tyre the same way again.
We do strength conditioning, upper
body, lower body and core workouts.
We use the tyres to help our members
put on lean muscle mass. Anything
you do in a regular fitness class, we’ll
do with tyres – we’ve even launched
an athletic yoga programme that incorporates the tyres into the movements.
All of our tyres are recycled and colour coded by weight. The green tyres
are our lightest tyres at about 10 to
12 pounds, the red tyres are our middle level tyres at about 15-20 pounds,
and the black tyres are our advanced
tyres – they weigh 20, 25 or even
sometimes 30 pounds. They’re for
people who really want to take their
bodies to the next level. We also have
OCT 2013
Amenzone Fitness opens
in Biltmore Fashion
Park, Phoenix, Arizona
NOV 2013
Amenzone
Fitness Arrowhead opens
in Glendale, Arizona
DEC 2013
Amenzone Fitness DC
Ranch opens in
Scottsdale, Arizona
JULY 2014
Amenzone’s second
California gym set to
open in Santa Monica
38
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
Any franchisee that comes on board has
to be willing to make a difference in their
community. I refuse to compromise on that
tractor tyres, which we use in our work
with professional athletes.
What is the Amenzone
Foundation?
It’s a non profit foundation with an
established board. We partner with
the Boys and Girls Clubs of America –
which is similar to YMCA – to get our
programmes into the community.
It’s a free afterschool programme
that’s sponsored by corporates and
angel investors. United Healthcare is
a partner of ours; the company has
rolled out our programme to several
schools and Boys and Girls Clubs.
They liked our concept because it’s
unique and it works – what kid doesn’t
like to play with tyres?
We use fitness as a vehicle to build
self-esteem and get our message out
about the importance of physical and
mental self care. It’s important that
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
we focus on self-esteem, as well as
nutrition and fitness, and we monitor
the progress of the young people taking part in the programme. At the start,
we carry out a range of tests, and ask
questions about fitness, nutrition and
self-esteem. After a period of time we
go through all the tests again so that
we can measure the effect the programme is having.
We go into a lot of very hard-hit,
economically deprived communities to
show these kids another way.
perspective, our main focus is on New
York and LA which are both perfect markets for us, but we’ll accommodate any
other cities that fit our demographic
and what we’re trying to accomplish.
We’ve sold 10 franchises within the
greater Los Angeles area – our second
LA gym is due to open in Santa
Monica soon. I think LA may just be
our largest market.
Our first Amenzone in New York is
also due to open very soon.
What’s your long term vision?
What are your plans for
the next 12 months?
Amenzone is such a simple, scaleable
model. We’ve already been solicited by
international groups who want to take
this to Australia and the UK, but for the
next year, we’re going to focus on growing organically across the US via our
franchise business. From a corporate
We will have gyms across the globe,
wherever we think we can help. For
every location we have an Amenzone
Fitness gym, we also want to have
an Amenzone Foundation programme
there. I refuse to compromise on that.
Any franchisee that comes on board
has to be willing to make a difference
in their community. O
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39
HOTSEAT
5I&`%J4S6Q5P3T
Nicolas Ronco
With dedicated nap pods, easy to understand treatment menus and a price
per minute, YeloSpa is hoping to help stressed out city dwellers bring a bit
of sanity into their lives. Founder Nicolas Ronco speaks to Magali Robathan
Tell me about your
career history
I studied corporate finance at the
Université Paris Dauphine in France.
I then went to the University of New
York to complete my MBA as part of
an exchange programme. After graduating, I worked for Time Warner for 10
years as a marketing executive, before
moving to France in 1999 to take up
the position of general managers of
several divisions of music software
provider MakeMusic. In 2004, I left to
start working on the YeloSpa concept.
How was the idea
for YeloSpa born?
The idea was born because I was persuaded by a customer – myself! When
I worked for MakeMusic, I travelled a
lot. When you’re under pressure and
you’re away from home, you want to
find a space where you can recharge
your batteries quickly. A spa seems
like the most natural option, but in
reality I found the whole spa process
in the US and Europe very frustrating.
You often have to book treatments a
long time in advance, the quality can
be hit and miss, it’s very expensive
and – as a man – I often felt out of
place in an environment that felt quite
female-orientated.
I travelled a lot to Asia and I noticed
that a many the issues I was having
were really well mitigated there – the
access to spas was much easier, the
prices were more reasonable and the
consistency of service was good.
An idea popped into my head: why
can’t we create a brand in the US that
would address the resistance people
have to spas? Seventy five per cent of
40
Nicolas Ronco worked for Time
Warner and MakeMusic before
launching YeloSpa
US consumers don’t go to spas. Why
not? The four main objections people
have to going to spas are that it’s too
expensive, people aren’t sure how
effective the treatments are, spas can
be intimidating and men often feel as
though it’s a ‘woman thing’.
How did you come up
with the concept?
We started by creating a place where
the offer and the booking process
were very easy. We eliminated the
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traditional spa menu, which can be
very confusing and overwhelming, and
replaced it with three categories –
massage, skincare and sleep. When
customers book, they just choose from
those three categories, which makes it
very easy to understand.
To combat the worries people have
about the expense of visiting a spa, we
decided to establish a price per minute.
This lets people decide how much
time they want to give themselves and
allows them to control their budget. We
charge a straight price per minute –
$2.4 per minute for a massage, $2.5
for skincare and $1 for sleep. People
can then decide they want 30 minutes
of massage and 20 minutes of nap,
for example. It’s super easy, and takes
less than a minute to book online.
Spas can be quite inflexible – people
might book a Balinese ritual a week
before the treatment, but when it gets
to the day they realise they actually
need a deep tissue massage because
they’ve been running and have muscle
ache, but it’s too late to change. At
YeloSpa, all of our massage therapists are trained in all disciplines.
Customers book 30 minutes of
massage and 20 minutes of nap, for
example. When they come in they’ll sit
down with a therapist who will ask how
they are and what issues they want to
address, and will advise on the best
type of massage on the day.
Where did you get the
idea to offer naps?
I grew up in Tunisia in the 1970s,
when we didn’t have air conditioning,
so people had to take naps because
it was impossible to focus during the
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The colour scheme used in the
spa was inspired by the robes and
sashes worn by Tibetan monks
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
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41
HOTSEAT
I took regular naps when I worked for Time Warner and really saw
the difference in my productivity as a result. I lived close to my
office but I thought, ‘what about people who live further away?’
hottest part of the day. I saw my father
come back from the office and take a
nap, and we did the same from school.
It was something that was really integrated into our lifestyles.
I continued to nap when I was working for Time Warner in New York. I
escaped the office at lunchtime, went
home, ate a sandwich and had a 20
minute nap. I really saw the difference
in my productivity as a result of taking
a nap compared to other people who
didn’t. Between 3pm and 5pm the people around me were falling apart, while
I was alive and enjoying the meetings I
was in. I was fortunate that I lived very
close to the office, but I thought, what
about the people who have to commute or who live further away? There’s
no place for people to take refuge.
It made me think there must be
something in our natural circadian cycle
that encourages us to nap, and when I
started reading the literature I realised
that really was the case. Scientific studies show that taking a nap three times
a week for 20 minutes can reduce your
rate of heart attack by 37 per cent. It
also helps with learning and creativity.
If you feel stuck and are trying to work
on a problem, taking a nap is extremely
efficient – you will start making mental
connections during that time.
If people book in for a nap
at YeloSpa, what happens?
We designed a special pod called
the YeloCab, which simulates being
in the womb and features chromotherapy, aromatherapy and music and
sound that customers choose. Our
YeloChairs elevate the legs above the
heart to slow down the heart rate and
decrease body temperature. This produces a relaxation response, and
encourages sleep.
Customers choose how long they
would like to nap for (between 20 and
40 minutes), and at the end of the nap
we wake them up with a simulated
sunrise. The light decreases the level
of melatonin in their brain through the
effect on the optical nerve and they
42
Boublil, and we also worked with
someone with a Phd from Harvard to
help us design our nap programme.
We opened the first YeloSpa in 2007
in midtown Manhattan, New York.
The vision has changed since the
early days. The original idea was to
keep the concept very simple and
just offer naps and reflexology, which I
thought would be cool because it would
be very efficient. The problem was that
a lot of people weren’t familiar with
reflexology and were a bit skittish about
taking naps. For the first six months we
had a tremendous amount of press, but
not a lot of traffic. We started offering
regular spa treatments such as massage and skincare, and that’s when the
business really took off.
When customers arrive at a
YeloSpa they sit down with a
therapist to plan their treatments
wake up very slowly and gently.
At Yelo we offer naps for two reasons – the first is for mental and
physical health. The second reason
was from a spa experience standpoint.
The worst time in a treatment is when
the therapist comes to you at the end,
gives you a glass of water, and says
‘I’ll be waiting outside, take your time’.
You’re on cloud nine and suddenly you
have to come back to reality. We offer
the option to take a nap at the end of
treatments, which really completes the
whole cycle in a very nice way.
How did you get YeloSpa
off the ground?
My first instinct was to go back to my
alma mater, Time Warner, set out my
vision and ask them if they thought
their employees would benefit from
it. They were very enthusiastic and
told me, ‘if you build it, we’ll send our
employees there’. Based on that I created a business plan, then spoke to
investors and started raising money.
At that point, we really started working properly on the business – we
found a very talented designer, Stefan
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How is business now?
It’s really good. The location in New
York, which is on 57th Street between
5th and Madison Avenue, is fantastic,
and gets a lot of customers. Our customers are different during the week
and on the weekend – during the week
it’s a lot of Type A guys taking naps
and having reflexology, whereas on the
weekend there are more women, and
our customers want to take more time
and really be pampered. The majority
– about 65 per cent – of our customers are active women in their thirties.
Right now naps represent eight per
cent of our revenue and around 15 per
cent of the treatments we do. The figure is quite low because the rest of
our treatments have grown so quickly,
while naps have stayed stable.
How did the business evolve?
Last year we opened our second facility, which is a franchise, in Sao Paulo in
Brazil. It’s a 3,000sq ft facility with 10
treatment rooms in a two storey house
in a beautiful location – it’s very Yelo in
terms of design but also very cozy and
adapted to the Brazilian market.
In May this year, we opened our
third facility – another franchise – in
San Juan, Puerto Rico. It’s a large
5,000sq ft facility with nine treatment
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The YeloSpa in Puerto Rico (above).
Ronco with Mitchel Rivera, CEO of
YeloSpa San Juan (below right)
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HOTSEAT
The YeloSpa in San Juan, Puerto
Rico features thermal facilities
including a flotarium tank (right)
rooms, a couples’ room and thermal
facilities including a salt-water flotarium, a steamroom and a rainfall
hallway. Together with the franchisee,
we‘ve created a new treatment called
Waterology, which is very exciting. The
therapists perform reflexology on your
feet while you’re floating in a warm
pool of salt water – it’s a bit like having reflexology in your mother’s womb.
We also launched a blow dry brand,
YeloDry Blo, which has been doing very
well. It’s a really fun and unique place.
Each one has a different local feel,
but because our brand is so strong,
you immediately recognise them as
being Yelo spas.
What’s next?
We’re working on a licensing agreement for a YeloSpa in London. It’s not
signed yet, but it could be exciting.
Our next big push is to expand our
franchising in the US. We’re looking at
Florida, Chicago, San Francisco and
Houston, Texas. We’re currently going
through the legal requirements to
become a franchisor in the States. In
the long term, we’d like to have around
100 – 150 locations in the US.
We’re also looking at product development. We’d like to develop a range
of products under the Yelo brand –
aromatherapy products, apps and
homeware – different pillows and
mattresses and sheets made with
44
sustainable materials. There’s going to
be a big focus on sleep and wellbeing.
We’re also going to open another
YeloSpa in Charles de Gaulle Airport
in Paris some time in 2016.
You’ve just starting
offering memberships.
How does that work?
We started offering memberships in
April and it’s been way more successful than we thought it would be. We
thought we’d be selling 300 memberships a year for our New York facility
– instead we sold 100 memberships
in just one month.
We’re making it very easy for people
to leave because that makes it easy
for them to join. Our philosophy is that
people will stay because they love the
service we offer, not because we put
in impediments for them to leave. Our
membership is $99 a month; for that
you get a 60 minute treatment of either
skincare or a massage, 20 per cent
off an additional treatment during the
same month and a 10 per cent discount on products. You can cancel your
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membership at any time, you can roll
over your treatments indefinitely and
you can gift them to a friend or family
member if you’re not able to use them.
We also launched two membership
offers in May – a nap membership for
$29 a month and a waxing membership for $39 a month.
What’s been the most
challenging thing about
launching YeloSpa?
Getting people to understand what we
were was a challenge at the start. We
didn’t call ourselves a spa, because
we didn’t offer the full range of treatments, so people didn’t understand
what we did. Once we started calling
ourselves YeloSpa people began to
understand the business a lot better.
And the highlight?
The highlight has been getting customer feedback and realising that
some of our customers understand
my concept better than I do. Also
our licensees really get it. In Puerto
Rico, our licensees have pushed the
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We really live insane lives. It’s taking a huge toll on us, and we don’t
fully realise it until we have our first heart attack or get burned out.
I want to introduce a measure of sanity into people’s lives
concept even further, for example with
the development of the waterology and
the blow dry treatments. When people
see and expand on your original vision
that’s very rewarding.
How would you describe
yourself? And how would
others describe you?
I’d describe myself as pretty driven.
Some people describe me as a bull
in a china shop because I say exactly
what’s on my mind – I’m not the most
diplomatic person. At the same time,
my vision is very pure. I’ve made a lot
of sacrifices in my personal life and
I’ve taken a lot of financial risks – with
both mine and other people’s money.
You don’t do that unless you have a
real passion for what you’re doing and
a real sense of purpose.
What is the philosophy
of YeloSpa?
My realisation when I worked in the
corporate world is that we really live
insane lives and it’s taking a huge toll
on us that we don’t fully realise until
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Therapists are trained in all
massage disciplines, meaning they
can tailor their treatments
we have our first heart attack or get
burned out or get some nasty disease.
I want to introduce a measure of
sanity into people’s lives.
Another thing that really disturbs
me – particularly in the US – is how
addicted people are to substances.
They’re addicted to prescription
medication, anti depressants, sleeping
pills, medication for ADHD. It’s a really
scary trend and it affects younger
people as well. Certain doctors, the
medical establishments and the big
pharma companies are all complicit
because they spend billions of dollars
developing new medications and protecting patents. It’s a huge industry.
At YeloSpa we are trying to wean
people off much of this medication; we’ve removed a lot of sleeping
medication from people’s lives, for
example, because they know they
have a place to nap.
What are the biggest
challenges for the spa industry?
One of the big challenges for the
industry is demonstrating that it has
a purpose above and beyond just
pampering rich ladies – that’s still
a common perception among many
people who don’t go to spas.
Where is your favourite
place on earth?
Bahia in Brazil. It’s a place where
nature is very powerful and I find it
very healing. Every time I need some
sanity I escape there.
What is your favourite book?
One of my favourite books of all time
is a French book called Belle du
Seigneur by Albert Cohen. It’s about
human nature and where the excess of
human nature can really lead you. It’s
an absolutely beautiful book.
What’s the best piece of advice
you’ve ever been given?
Everything in moderation, especially
moderation. O
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45
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
5I&`%J4S6Q5P3T
VAL KEMPADOO
After involvement in both the media and politics, social reformer and
entrepreneur Valmiki Kempadoo has decided that hospitality is the way to
create a sustainable future for the Caribbean. He talks to Kath Hudson
W
ith a mix of hotels,
villas, spa and golf,
Kittitian Hill, on the
Caribbean island of
St Kitts, might sound like a regular,
albeit luxury, holiday resort. But look
closer and it becomes evident that
this is a game changer on many levels.
It’s the manifestation of the philosophy of its founder Valmiki Kempadoo,
who has been an organic farmer, landscape gardener, horticulturist, founded
a tv station and formed two political
parties. He believes tourism is the
best vehicle for change and the best
way of creating a sustainable future
for the Caribbean.
The first phase of the US$500m
development, which started in 2010,
is opening in December this year.
It will include Belle Mont Farm, a
collection of 84 farmhouses and a
four bedroom suite; an ‘edible’ golf
course, Irie Fields (more on this later),
a fitness centre, bar and restaurant,
as well as a clubhouse. By the end of
2015, the site will also have a spa, a
farm-to-table restaurant, a conference
centre and a central village, which will
be the hub of the resort.
THE CONCEPT
Valmiki Kempadoo has always had a strong interest in sustainability
46
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Kempadoo has tried to bring about
change in the Caribbean in many
ways, but after winning an election he
became disillusioned, believing that
while the government had changed,
the politics had not.
“I asked myself, what can give us
significant and lasting change for a
sustainable future? It’s a very young
society, with a disturbed past,” he
says. “Tourism is the single largest
driver for the region, but the business
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The resort is set in 400 acres of
organic farmland. The produce will
be used in the resort’s restaurants,
and ‘pick me’ signs will invite
guests to sample the fruit
Kempadoo has involved
local people as much as
possible: (Top left) a local
fisherman; (Left) a farmer;
(Bottom left) a shepherd
model being used by the large international resorts is not dissimilar to that
of the plantation model of yesteryear:
one of maximum extraction and
exploitation. It’s very sad that after
500 years we’re still doing pretty
much the same thing.”
Intent on finding a new model and
a new way forward for the industry,
Kempadoo drew on his experiences in
different areas – NGOs, private sector,
government – to create a vehicle which
could achieve a sustainable change.
To start with, he needed a suitable
location. It had to be an island which
was new and unpositioned in the tourism sector, without a strong branding.
So this ruled out places like Barbados
and St Lucia. Also he needed a government which would be supportive of a
large scale development, based on a
broad philosophic vision, rather than
48
attached to a big, international brand.
St Kitts presented the ideal opportunity. The government embraced the
idea; the economy was in transition,
moving away from being an agrarian,
sugar-producing island. Tourism was
yet to take hold, but the island was
easily accessible, with a road running
all the way around and flights directly
from New York, Miami and London.
“It is not the classic white sand
type of island of the Caribbean,” says
Kempadoo. “We do have white sand,
but we also have volcanic black sand
beaches and steep mountains – the
new village will go from 500 feet to
1,000 feet, with beautiful views.”
Kempadoo’s philosophy was to
develop the resort purely using local
and regional people. However, as he
got further into the project, he realised
that he couldn’t meet all of his objec-
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tives unless he went international. So
although he has used local teams
for the building work, he had to look
further afield for some elements,
including the architecture.
Bill Bensley, who specialises in tropical resorts, was chosen for this role.
“The international team have taken
the development to another level,” he
says. “Bill’s background is in landscape architecture; he is focused on
the externals, rather than just the
buildings. I was really impressed with
how he took the vernacular architecture of St Kitts and quickly distilled it
into modern resort architecture, with a
bit of an edge to it.”
FARM TO TABLE
Kempadoo acquired 400 acres, which
is equally split between a golf course
and development, including four 100ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
(Top and bottom left) Local
contractors have been used
to build the resort; (top
right) One of the gardeners
at Kittitian Hill
The tourism model used
by the large international
resorts is not dissimilar to
the plantation model of
yesteryear: one of maximum
extraction and exploitation
bed boutique hotels and 75 villas.
The 18-hole championship golf
course, Irie Fields, has a couple of
interesting USPs: it will be one of
only three organic golf courses in the
world and the management claim it
will be the world’s most edible golf
course, with 75 acres of the 200 acre
course being farmed.
“There are three issues with golf
courses which we’ve tried to avoid,”
explains Kempadoo. “The water usage,
the pesticides and fertilisers and the
land use. Nobody really talks about
how much land golf courses tie up. We
came up with the idea of resolving this
by farming the areas around the golf
course with edible plants.”
More than 100 different varieties of
mango have been planted and other
specialities grown there will include
avocados and signature rare fruits.
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Sustainable sourcing and farm-totable are two other threads running
through Kittitian Hill. Kempadoo
believes that within five years, the
island will export more than it imports.
To this end, even crops of chocolate
and coffee have been planted.
Some cereals, oils, wine and
red meat will have to be imported,
although there is a discussion about
whether or not to even offer red meat,
since it’s not authentic. Apart from
a few popular labels, all the wine
imported will be natural and organic.
The culinary team is being put
together to define the restaurants.
The highest culinary experience
will be farm-to-table restaurant The
Table, which will open in 2015 and
is influenced by other farm-to-table
restaurants like Roganics in London.
The others will be simple, based on
healthy and local ingredients.
The staff will eat their meals in
one of the restaurants; rather than
having a staff cafeteria hidden away,
Kempadoo wanted to make the
staff part of the action with a casual, local food restaurant. “We’re
not going for discreet Asian service,”
says Kempadoo. “Our people are too
naturally gregarious for that.”
MANGO WALK
Kempadoo has high hopes that the
spa, Mango Walk, will become a significant destination spa. Slated to open
at the end of 2015, he says it will offer
unusual spa treatments.
The spa team is currently researching all the local and regional
indigenous treatments in order to
offer a menu which is rooted in the
history and culture of the area – with
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49
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
a leaf wrap being developed.
“There won’t be Himalayan salt
scrubs: we’ll be using local sea salt
to make our own salt scrubs,” says
Kempadoo. “We’ll be planting the
botanicals on our own farm and organically producing our own oils and mixes.”
There will be 16 treatment rooms
and four specialist rooms, all designed
in vernacular Kittitian style.
Other features include meditation
gardens and a self-guided walk to
encourage people to wind down and
immerse themselves in nature.
There will also be a hyper saline
pool, hot and cold water treatments
in pools, a steamroom, and a ‘yoga
cathedral,’ made purely out of bamboo.
The spa and the hotels will be run
by Sedona Resorts. “We spent a while
looking for a hotel operator that would
be willing to operate a hotel without
imposing their brand on it, and that
also fitted with the philosophy,” says
Kempadoo. “I sought a partner that
would take the same care that I’d put
into the development of the resort,
and would run the hospitality with that
same level of care.”
AFFLUENT LIBERALS
Affluent liberals have been identified
as the main target market for this holiday experience, and New York and
London have large concentrations of
this demographic. “We didn’t start
by identifying a target market and
then developing a concept,” explains
50
The architecture, landscape and
interior design are by architect Bill
Bensley and have been inspired by
traditional St Kittitian architecture.
Local contractors are being used
Kempadoo. “We started with a vision
and then went out to find resonance.
The group of people we’re aiming for
are metropolitan and wealthy, but not
mainstream conservative wealthy.
“They are progressive, edgy, arty:
filmmakers and advertising executives.
They go to the Tate Modern, eat in
farm-to-table restaurants and like art,
culture and travel.”
People from this demographic are
seeking authentic experiences, says
Kempadoo. They don’t want to have
a holiday which they feel is imposed
on a destination, but want to feel integrated and meet the local people. They
would rather spend their money on
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experiences than material possessions. “We believe experience will be
the new luxury,” he says. “Gucci and
Prada handbags belong to the past
and conservative affluent people.”
When the development is fully up
and running, Kempadoo plans to focus
on creating the Kittitian Hill Institute, a
place of higher and aspirational thinking, with a significant Caribbean library,
an art gallery and a place where people can meet and debate.
Kittitian Hill has already attracted
the attention of other Caribbean governments who are keen to do similar
projects, working with their own people as opposed to relying on external
sources to develop their islands.
However, the main aim of this
project, and what will mark it out as
being a success in Kempadoo’s eyes,
is whether or not it can bring about
the change he desires: a legacy he’s
inherited from his father, who also
worked with NGO movements around
the world specialising in rural developments and intercultural relations.
“My father taught me that societies
are changed one person at a time,”
he says. “Change is slow and takes
time and resources,” he says.º O
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
Y
MAKE EOVUENRT
CUP CMANY SOUTH AMERICAN FAMILIES HAVE
TO TREK FOR HOURS TO GET CLEAN WATER.
TOGETHER LETS DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
KENCO HAS SET A GOAL OF PROVIDING
500 MILLION GLASSES OF CLEAN WATER
TO SOUTH AMERICAN COFFEE GROWING
COMMUNITIES. WITH EVERY CUP OF
KENCO VENDING YOU ENJOY, A GLASS
OF CLEAN WATER WILL GO TO THEM.
To find out more about the campaign and our competition
go to kenco.co.uk/cleanwater
0870 600 6556
www.thekencocoffeecompany.co.uk
ATTRACTIONS
The museum is always
looking to find new
stories of great innovation
MOHAI
MOHAI’s executive director, Leonard Garfield, describes the Seattle
museum’s exciting new development, the Bezos Center for Innovation,
named after its principal donor – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos
What was the inspiration for the
Bezos Center for Innovation?
It’s not just about inspiring the next
generation of entrepreneurs, we want
young people to understand that innovation comes in all areas: not just
research and development, but civic
life and culture and other areas as well.
The lone inventor with a great idea is
not necessarily a great innovator: innovation is a team sport.
When we were discussing themes, we
realised Seattle has seen a persistent focus on innovation during the
last 100 years: companies come to
this region to invent the future. So a
museum with innovation as the core
theme seemed to be appropriate.
What’s its main aim?
We set out to present the story of
innovation and engage the community with that story, encouraging young
people to discuss innovation, the tradition of innovation and how to build
the future of innovation. To safeguard
our own future, we want to prepare the
workforce and community mindset.
52
Have you been inspired by
any other museums?
MOHAI’s Leonard Garfield
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There are some great innovation museums out there, including the Tech
Museum of Innovation in San Jose and
the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit.
However the main inspiration has
come from the great innovations within
our own community. We talked with
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JEFF BEZOS SAYS:
Look at the disproportionate number of
extraordinary organisations founded in Seattle
– Microsoft, Costco, Boeing, Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center, PACCAR – even
UPS was founded here. These companies
and their innovations have had a big impact
on Seattle, the country, and the world.
There’s something about Seattle that has made
it an unusually good place to innovate, and the
MOHAI Center for Innovation will help Seattle
continue on that course by showcasing and
teaching how industrial innovation
can play an important role in
human advancement. New
treatments, affordable
flights, a computer on
every desk – the core
activities of these
Seattle organisations
have created benefit for
people at home and
around the
The new innovation centre cost $US10m, with the
primary funding coming from Amazon founder
Jeff Bezos. MOHAI attracts 250,000 visitors a
year, and the new centre will broaden the reach
world.
Jeff Bezos was passionate about sharing the story of the history of
innovation. Seattle is his hometown and being involved with this
centre was a way of reaching out to the broader community
several dozen history makers about
what they felt was important to share
with seventh graders and then we have
presented their thoughts.
Where has funding come from?
Overall, the Bezos Center has cost
US$10m (£6m, E7.3m). The primary funding came from Jeff and
MacKenzie Bezos and the rest has
come from general funding raised by
the museum. Like all US museums,
we’re self-funded.
When did Jeff Bezos
become involved?
We began talking to him in the fall of
2011. He became familiar with our programme and we shared our ideas and
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
expanded the mission of the museum.
He felt passionately about sharing
the story of the history of innovation
with a broader audience. Seattle is his
hometown and being involved with this
centre was one way of reaching out to
the broader community.
Among our goals was to reach
young people. We wanted to share
the innovation tradition with them.
Who were the designers?
We worked with local architectural
firm, Olson Kundig Architects, who
have a reputation for being wonderful experimental exhibit designers.
Another Seattle firm, Pacific Studio,
was responsible for the primary design
fabrication and San Francisco company,
Stimulant, did the interactive media.
What was your brief to them?
How involved was Jeff
Bezos in the project?
Jeff Bezos inspired the development of
the centre and continued to encourage
us throughout the project.
MOHAI is honoured to be associated
with him and the other great innovators included in the Bezos Center.
Create something beautiful and engaging, present the rich history of Seattle
and inspire innovation.
Can you describe some
of the content?
The centre is a combination of exhibits, oral history, programmes and
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
53
ATTRACTIONS
The stories behind innovations in all sectors are on display
interactives, asking what it means to be
innovative and how we stay innovative.
The Patent Tree details patents
over the past 100 years for all types
of objects from umbrellas to medical
equipment. There are first person oral
accounts from innovators themselves
about what inspired them: you can
hear people like Howard Schultz, who
started Starbucks, and Jeff Bezos talk
about what it takes for a company to
stay at the cutting edge, or hear them
talk about their personal lives.
Visitors can also record what they
think about innovation, and what they
think will be the next challenge. They
can post their ideas in a number of
ways: graphically, digitally, or by typing
ideas in response to questions from
other visitors. They can also conjure
up their own invention, or build a business plan and compare it with others.
What’s the most popular feature?
What’s Next is an exhibit which
changes and discusses the future of
innovation. Recently we looked at what
54
ABOUT BEZOS CENTER FOR INNOVATION
With the aim of ‘igniting the innovator within’, the Bezos Center
for Innovation opened its doors
at Seattle’s Museum of History &
Industry (MOHAI) last October.
This US$10m (£6m, E7.3m) extension to the original 62-year-old
Seattle museum furthers the vision
of the museum to inspire people to
create a better future for themselves
and their communities.
It believes that the preservation and
exploration of the past is essential to
effective decision-making in the future.
would come next in the video game
industry. Seattle is home to the US
headquarters of a number of big names
in the industry including Nintendo, Xbox
and Valve. We invited young producers
to come in and talk about what’s happening and visitors had the opportunity
to test games which aren’t yet on the
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
Seattle has spawned many of the
world’s most successful companies, including Amazon, Starbucks,
Microsoft, Expedia and Boeing.
The centre is both a celebration of
this successful track record, and prepares the ground for more homegrown
talent, inspiring high school children
to continue their city’s legacy.
Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos – who created the
largest retailer on the internet – is
the principal donor, allowing the
museum to become a reality.
market. Their feedback was then used
in games development.
How many companies
are showcased?
Hundreds. From big names like
Boeing, Starbucks and Amazon to
lots of companies that are still seekISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
As potential future
innovators, teenagers are
a key target audience
There’s something about Seattle that has made it an
unusually good place to innovate, and the MOHAI Center for
Innovation will help Seattle continue on that course
ing venture capital. We’ve identified
some of the most cutting edge innovation companies, and although some
may not be in business next year, we
expect others to be shaping the world
in 10 or 20 years’ time.
Who’s the target audience
for the museum?
We’re a general museum, so we want
to target everyone, but the main demographic we want to engage with is
younger people at high school: the
pre-teens and young teens who are
receptive to information. We also want
to reach young professionals.
How many visitors do you
expect to attract?
In the last year, MOHAI has attracted
250,000, which is more than anticiISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
pated in our business plan. It costs
$14 (£8.40, E10.20) for adults, and
under-15s go free.
What has been the
response so far?
Visitors to MOHAI have participated,
become members, shared ideas and
attended events, so the response has
been great and we will keep growing
and expanding.
What sort of community and
educational programmes
are you running?
All young visitors get an innovation
pack, in a backpack, to help them
engage with the centre. We’ve also run
classroom programmes, lectures and
panel discussions and are identifying
partnerships with Seattle companies.
What were the main challenges?
Getting all of the stories and artefacts
in. Making those decisions was hard
because there are so many stories
and people and voices.
How has the Bezos Center
benefited the museum?
It’s the first thing you see on the visit,
so whereas history museums usually
start with the distant past and work up
to the present day, we begin our experience with today’s history, making you
think of the future.
What are you most proud of?
There’s a cliché in the US: build it and
people will come, but in the museum
world you do wonder about that! So
I’m very proud of the fact people are
coming, engaging and learning. O
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
55
INTERVIEW
MARTIN DALBY
As Center Parcs’ fifth park opens, the company’s CEO talks to Magali Robathan
about overhauling the planning process, eyeing up Ireland and further afield
O
n 6 June, Center Parcs’ fifth
UK village, Center Parcs
Woburn, opened to the
public. It was a long time
coming for many people;
none more so than Center
Parcs’ chief executive Martin Dalby.
“It was a bit surreal,” says Dalby, of
the opening day. “I was up at six, pacing around the lodge where I was
staying. We’d been working on the park
for so long, and had to jump through
so many hoops to get to this stage, I
couldn’t quite believe we’d done it. The
dream had finally come true.”
It took 10 years from finding the site
to opening the new village, and at one
point it looked as though it might never
56
happen, when the planning permission was refused by Mid Bedfordshire
District Council. Center Parcs appealed
the decision and permission was eventually granted in September 2007.
But just when it looked as though
things were back on track, the recession hit and construction was put on
hold, delaying the project further.
In 2012, the company refinanced its
debt and raised £150m towards the
construction of Woburn Forest (with
Blackstone committing an additional
£100m), and in May 2012 construction
began in earnest. Two years later, on
a sunny June morning, Dalby and the
team got ready to welcome the first paying guests to the park.
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
“It was a day to remember,” says
Dalby. “Around 10am we got the first
20 families into the park together. We
gave them a glass of champagne, I said
a few words of welcome. The sun was
shining brightly. It was a nice moment.”
WOBURN FOREST
Center Parcs has stuck to its existing formula with Woburn Forest – with
occupancy at 97.2 per cent over the
previous 12 months across the other
four UK villages and 1.7 million people visiting, the management are not
likely to muck around with their offer
too much. The site is 362 acres, and
it features 625 lodges, a 75 bedroom hotel, a lake, 16 restaurants and
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
Center Parcs Woburn Forest is
spread across a 362 acre site
in the Bedfordshire countryside.
The Dome overlooks the lake
INTERVIEW
(Top left) The Tornado is one of
three new water rides; (Top right)
The Subtropical Swimming Dome is
the UK’s largest: (Below) The Plaza
58
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
The design of the lodges at Center Parcs’ other UK villages has been tweaked for Woburn Forest
Why does the planning process take years and years
and millions of pounds? For big, economically important
projects like ours, there must be a better way
bars, more than 100 leisure activities,
an Aqua Sana spa and of course the
Subtropical Swimming Dome, which is
at the heart of all Center Parcs resorts.
Although the offer is very similar to
that of Center Parcs’ four other UK
villages, the company has taken the
opportunity to update the design and
accommodation in Woburn Forest.
“It’s 2014 so it’s more contemporary in its styling; we’ve used new
interior designs, the place is very spacious, the quality of materials is very
high. The whole place has a real quality feel to it,” says Dalby.
The Subtropical Swimming Dome
has also been updated – it is the biggest in the UK, and features three
new water rides; Twister (an enclosed
bodyslide flume), Typhoon (a two
seater tube ride) and Tornado, a family ride raft that starts with a dark
tunnel and a 45 degree drop before
propelling riders into a huge funnel at
speeds of up to 20mph.
“It’s pretty frightening and great fun,”
says Dalby, of the Tornado ride. “It
took me an hour to persuade my wife
to go down it, but once she’d tried it I
couldn’t get her off!”
The Aqua Sana spa has also been
updated, with Woburn Forest embracing a new spa concept developed by
Schletterer Wellness & Spa Design
and Sparc Studio. The three floor facility is split into six smaller themed spas,
featuring 22 treatment rooms and 25
experience rooms, as well as six spa
suites. (For more information on the
Aqua Sana facility, see p36.)
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STARTING OUT
Dalby left school at 16 for a traineeship in the accounts department at
Scottish and Newcastle. From there he
worked his way up, rising through the
ranks to the position of financial controller. In 1995 he joined Center Parcs
as financial controller, and was instantly
impressed with the welcoming atmosphere of the company. “It doesn’t take
long for the whole ethos and culture of
Center Parcs to get into your blood,” he
says. In 1997 he became finance director and in 2000, when the previous
chief executive stepped down suddenly,
the chairman asked Dalby if he wanted
to take up the role.
“It was an amazing thing – to be
asked to become CEO of such a fantastic brand was a real honour,” says
Dalby. He was just 38 at the time,
and had only ever worked in financial
roles before. Was he daunted? “No,
no, not at all,” he says.
You get the impression that not a lot
phases Dalby, which is a good thing, as
he’s had his fair share of challenges
during his 14 years at the helm of
Center Parcs. The company has gone
through several changes of ownership
since he took over – in 2001, Scottish
and Newcastle, who’d owned it since
1989, sold out to Deutsche Bank
Capital Partners. The operating side of
the business was floated on London’s
Alternative Investment Market, and the
property part of it was sold off in a sale
and leaseback deal. In 2005 the operating company moved to the main
listing on the London Stock Exchange,
before private equity firm Blackstone
bought it a year later, in March 2006.
Center Parcs had a challenging
time as a public company. Despite
having high occupancy and good profits, the company was hit with several
problems during this time, including
an outbreak of gastroenteritis at its
Longleat village and soaring energy
and rates prices. When Blackstone
bought it, it paid 80p a share – 20p
below the 100p floatation price.
Then, of course, there was Woburn.
Center Parcs first found the site
in Bedfordshire back in 2004, and
announced that its fifth UK village
would open by 2008. However they
reckoned without the planning process – it took five years and £5m to
get the project through planning, and
permission was only approved when
then communities secretary Hazel
Blears ignored the advice of the planning inspector and decided that the
economic, ecological and employment
benefits outweighed any perceived
harm to Green Belt land.
“It was very frustrating at times,”
says Dalby. “This is a massive project, with a massive impact, both on
Bedfordshire and tourism in the UK. It
injects more than £20m into the local
economy, it creates 1,500 jobs, it’s
great for the environment, it avoids
people having to commute out of
Bedfordshire to go and find work. With
that in mind, why does the planning
process takes years and years and
millions of pounds? For big projects
like ours, there must be a better way.”
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
59
INTERVIEW
Dalby’s lowest point was in the council chamber on 18 July 2006. “We
were nine committee members for the
project, nine against, and the chairman decided to cast his vote against.
That was a pretty disappointing thing
for him to do,” he says.
Did Dalby ever think the project
wouldn’t happen? “No, I’m too determined for that. After that meeting, we
went back to our hotel, had a few beers,
then thought, to hell with these guys,
we’re going to appeal it.”
“It’s only through the perseverance
of our company that we made it to this
point,” says Dalby. “Many other companies would have fallen at some of the
hurdles we’ve had to jump.”
It’s time for a rethink of the planning laws in the UK, argues Dalby. So
what would he suggest? “There’s too
much that gets tied up in the local
process, with the local authority making decisions on projects that are of a
national scale,” he says. “I think there
needs to be some sort of process that
takes these significant, economically
important projects and finds a way to
fast track them and bypass the local
authority involvement.”
LOOKING AHEAD
After all the challenges and hard work
of getting Woburn Forest up and running, the next 12 months will see
Center Parcs in a consolidation phase.
“The most immediate thing is to
bring Woburn Forest into the fold
60
(Above) Center Parcs offers
a Segway experience, with
tuition and a chance to ride the
machines on a practice track
– get the place settled in, get everything running really well,” says Dalby.
“For the longer term, my role as CEO
is to look for opportunities for growing
the business, to think about where
the next site might be.”
Woburn Forest is likely to be the last
Center Parcs Village on the UK mainland, with existing villages in the Lake
District, the Midlands, the South West,
the Eastern counties and of course
Woburn, slap bang in the middle.
“We’ve got the whole place covered,
quite frankly,” says Dalby. “The population of the UK is 63 million, and two
million people will come and have a
holiday with Center Parcs in the next
12 months. That’s more than three per
cent, so our penetration of the market is very high. There’s not really any
need for another facility.”
Ireland is a different matter, however.
“There don’t seem to be any facilities in
Ireland for the type of customers that
come to a Center Parcs. It’s certainly
an attractive market for us,” he says.
Have they begun looking for sites
there yet? “We’ve had a couple of little
trips over there to see how the land
lies, but there’s nothing specific at
this stage.” What would they look for
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
in a site? “It’s the same ingredients
as over here – some coniferous trees,
about 400 acres of land,” he says,
adding that somewhere central would
be ideal. “You’ve got to think about
the whole of Ireland – north and south
– as the marketplace.”
Further ahead, the company would
be open to building a park overseas.
He has mentioned China and India
in the past, but is vague when I ask
him. “Who knows? We don’t have
any particular boundaries, so we’d go
wherever the market and economic
conditions were right. We’ll probably go
a bit closer to home first though.”
A change of ownership is also likely
to be on the cards at some point in
the not too distant future – there have
been several rumours that Blackstone
is exploring its options for exiting the
business. “Clearly we’ve got to get
Woburn Forest open and stable and
get the accounts in place first, so I
think it will be some time off yet,” says
Dalby. Is he worried about the possibility of the company going public
again, after last time? “Not at all,” he
insists.“Our world is very different
today. The company is much bigger
than it was last time, and is in a much
stronger position than it was back
then. We’d be very happy to do that if
that’s what Blackstone wanted to do.”
As for Dalby himself, he has no
plans to go anywhere. “I’m afraid
Center Parcs is stuck with me for a
while yet,” he laughs. O
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
MARTIN
DALBY
Quick-fire
Questions
What do you attribute the
success of Center Parcs to?
Three things. Firstly our reputation –
we’ve built the brand up over the past
27 years, and people trust us. They
know that if they come to Center Parcs
they’ll have a good experience. It’s
a very aspirational brand, and that’s
been part of its success.
Secondly, we reinvest our profits
significantly back into the business
every year to upgrade the park, maintain the quality, innovate and bring new
additions to the facilities. Over the
last six years, we’ve invested more
than £350m in the four core business
parks – we could have built another
park with that money, but it’s really
important that our parks are well maintained. That drives the level of repeat
business and therefore the very high
level of occupancy.
The most important factor in our
success is our staff. We have 7,500
employees now. These are the guys
that deliver a fantastic experience, and
that really make the difference.
How much has the company
changed since you joined?
I joined Center Parcs more than 20
years ago. Back then we were owned
by Scottish and Newcastle and our
head office was in Rotterdam, so we
went over to Holland a lot. The ethos
and vision of the business hasn’t
changed though. It’s still about being
with your family in a forest environISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
If you’re going to do something,
do it well. Otherwise, don’t
bother doing it at all
ment, about healthy living and active
holidays, about lifestyle and caring for
the environment.
How has Center Parcs’
commitment to the
environment evolved?
Center Parcs has always been a leading company in terms of caring for
the environment and its sustainability
credentials. It’s very important to us –
it’s in our blood.
When I joined, caring for the environment was important, but it has
definitely become more prominent in
the business. We now have a sustainability manager who does nothing else
but think about how we can become
even more sustainable. Before we
make any investments, we absolutely
consider their impact on the environment. With Woburn Forest, we are
aiming to use 25 per cent less carbon
than in our other villages. Across our
parks, we’re fully committed to reducing our carbon emissions by 20 per
cent by 2020. We started in 2010 and
we’re already over half way there.
It’s also important to us to educate
our guests – to show them that you
can save money and look after the
environment at the same time.
What drives you?
I enjoy setting objectives, and achieving those aims. For me to be the head
of a fantastic family brand that just
about everyone has heard of, that’s
delivering a great holiday experience –
that’s enough to drive anyone.
What has been your
biggest achievement?
During my time as CEO, we’ve seen
Center Parcs grow significantly in
terms of its profitability and the value
of the business.
Every year for 15 years we’ve been
able to grow the profit, push hard on
occupancies. That’s got to be my biggest achievement.
How do you spend
your leisure time?
I do a bit of wood turning in my spare
time, making fruit bowls and lamps
and so on. I have a workshop that I
disappear into – that’s my ‘me time’.
What’s your philosophy?
If you’re going to do something, do it
well. If not, don’t bother doing it at all.
What is your ultimate ambition?
To carry on doing what I’m doing.
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
61
Donna McKee is spa manager at Woburn Forest
Aqua Sana at
Woburn Forest
“This is the biggest, most
innovative spa we’ve ever
created, a concept that
has evolved from the success of our existing Aqua
Sanas,” says Woburn construction director Don
Camilleri of the Aqua Sana
spa at Woburn Forest.
The facility is actually
made up of six smaller
spas all inspired by nature
and combining different
approaches from many of
Europe’s leading establishments. The six spas
are themed around Fire
and Ice, Mineral and
Gemstone, Blossom,
Herbal, Sensory and Salt.
Each spa holds a variety
of multi-sensory experience
rooms and there is an outdoor infinity pool looking
out across Woburn Forest.
The Aqua Sana concept was designed and
developed by Schletterer
Wellness & Spa Design
and Sparc Studio.
As well as 25 experience rooms there are
also 22 treatment rooms
across the six different
areas with products from
Elemis, Decléor and Bliss.
Facilities in the six sections include three saunas,
a snow and ice room,
(This pic) The Crystal Steam Bath;
(Below) Lava Volcano Sauna;
(Bottom) The Blossom Heat Room
Woburn construction
director Don Camilleri
six multi-sensory shower
rooms, five relaxation
lounges, two steamrooms, a
heat room, a herbal inhalation bath, two steam cabins,
a meditation room, a salt
inhalation room, a zen garden and a mineral room.
Also included is a
boutique, gym and
Vitalé Café Bar serving
Mediterranean refreshments and light cuisine.
There are also six luxury
spa suites housed on
the top two floors, offering direct access to the
spa. These feature oversized bath tubs and private
balconies, and mean guests
don’t have to use the communal changing areas.
(Above) The outdoor infinity pool
offers views over the forest;
(Below) The salt steamroom uses
Himalayan salt to detoxify
INTERVIEW
Centre Parcs Woburn first person
THE PARK LIZ TERRY, EDITOR, LEISURE MANAGEMENT
M
y first impression
is that this is the
Center Parcs for
London. It has a
more urban aesthetic, is more
‘designed’, with higher spec
accommodation, more upscale
retail, a fabulous spa and a
hotel with beautiful spa suites.
With London less than an hour away
by rail and road, this is the site which
will draw the yummy mummies and co
and they won’t be disappointed.
Our light, airy and comfortable
house was all ensuite, with its own
sauna in the garden and plenty of
room to hang out and spend time with
family. Built on two levels, it had a balcony with a view of the lake and all the
sensible Dutch Center Parcs touches.
My only concern would be whether the
kitchen cupboards will wear well.
The Subtropical Paradise
at Woburn has – in my view
– a less lavish and intuitively designed pool and
adult waterplay area when
compared with the other villages, however, it has a new
focus on kids’ waterplay and
adrenaline rides: MD Martin
Dalby told me research showed visitors thought the pool needed spicing
up – hence the addition of some pretty
scary drop rides, one of which had me
spinning screaming (loudly) and hurtling
backwards in a four person inner tube.
Center Parcs’ vision has always been
that the sightlines of the bungalows
ensured each existed in its own private
space. It feels as though this rule has
been overridden in places at Woburn,
giving the site a less mysterious feel
and although the overall look will soften
once the vegetation has grown up, the
layout is more open and like a housing
estate than in previous villages.
The other four villages are buried
deep in the woods, so as you arrive you
feel you’re withdrawing from the world.
Woburn doesn’t do this – you’re straight
into the car park with a brusqueness
that fails to charm. My preference
would be for this to be addressed in
the way the customer journey is evolved,
by taking a new route in.
Center Parcs is a great model
and one I believe could be replicated almost anywhere in the world.
Although the team has plans to
develop a site in Ireland, I think they
should look to global expansion too.
The fact the brand is split with Pierre
et Vacances in Europe makes this a
slightly more challenging dream, but
still one which is possible to achieve.
Center Parcs is a great model and one which could be replicated
almost anywhere in the world. Although the current team has plans
to develop in Ireland, they should look to global expansion too
THE SPA HELEN ANDREWS, JOURNALIST, SPA BUSINESS MAGAZINE
T
he spa is accessed
from the World of
Spa reception. You
start with a foot bath
which has three different massage settings and different
essential oils – rose, mint
and orange. You can then
explore the facility in your own
time. The spa is huge, and I as though I
wouldn’t be able to do it all in a day.
I really enjoyed the inhalation steamrooms, some of which had warm
showers that went off intermittently.
The idea of having a separate relaxation room per zone initially seemed a bit
extravagant, but this is a spa that’s very
much focused on social bonding and
relaxation, so having areas in which to
congregate and talk makes sense.
64
I was impressed at the
amount of thought that had
gone into finding the right
design of wheelchair, so that
there is a collapsable, easy to
manouevre chair that doesn’t
heat up too much available for
use in the spa, meaning it’s
accessible to everyone.
The infinity pool had a bubble jet
bench on one side and a bubble bed
grate on the other that you could lie
down on – but what was really cool
were the jets by the pool which massaged your back and shoulders if you
stood under them – one of them was
so fast and furious it almost hurt.
I had a Decleor Aromatherapy
Massage, which focuses on key pressure points. My therapist – Chloe
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
– gave me a full-body massage with a
Decleor oil that smelled of citrus in a
room where the lights changed from
blue to pink and back again slowly.
The massage combined soft strokes
with occasional bursts of deep tissue therapy. She focused on my thighs
and upper back with the deep tissue
strokes using her elbows and forearms
to stretch my muscles. At some points
I wasn’t expecting such an intense
pressure but the relief it provided afterwards was just what I needed. She held
my hand to massage the full length of
my arms, as she smoothed the tension and tightness from my wrists and
elbows. I felt totally relaxed afterwards.
Overall, I had a great time, although
I’d be wary of how busy it might get
during peak times. O
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
(Clockwise from top) The spa
suites all have private balconies;
the mineral room; salt inhalation
room; herbal inhalation baths
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
65
TALK BACK
Is the UK government’s crackdown on
term-time holidays damaging tourism?
Reporting by Jak Phillips
and Magali Robathan
A fining system
favours families
who can afford
to pay the fines
I
n September 2013, legislation came into force
meaning that headteachers are no longer able
to authorise requests
for parents to take their children out of school during term
time. Previously, heads were
able to use their discretion to
authorise absences in ‘special circumstances’, which allowed some
parents to take their children out of
school for short breaks or holidays
when prices were lower, however,
under the new rules, parents can
now be fined £60 per child per
week for unauthorised absence.
Some parents are furious about
this change, saying that it hits families who can’t afford to go away
during the school holidays, when
prices can be as much as double those during term time. In turn
operators say the rules are affect-
Kurt Janson, policy director,
Tourism Alliance
ing their businesses, and that
they’re seeing a drop in the numbers of families taking shorter
breaks out of season.
So are the new rules fair? What
impact are they having on the tourism industry? And are tourism
companies exploiting families by
hiking up their prices during the
school holidays, or is it a simple
case of supply and demand, with
organisations making money during the peak season to see them
through the rest of the year?
We speak to some of those
affected by the change to find out.
Our users think
holiday companies
are exploiting parents
Justine Roberts, CEO, Mumsnet
W
ith the introduction of fines
for taking children out of
school during term-time
combined with sky-high travel costs
it feels like a lose-lose situation for
parents. Three quarters of Mumsnet
users think holiday companies are
exploiting parents who have no choice
about when they travel.
Obviously it’s hard to refute the laws
of supply and demand, but equally,
holiday companies seem to be happily making extraordinary profits out of
families and not surprisingly many feel
66
that they are being ripped off.
Most parents would rather not take
their children out of school, but for
many families it can be the only way
to afford a holiday, as travel companies ratchet up their prices to such an
extent during peak times.
Many Mumsnet users are frustrated
by a one-size-fits-all approach when
it comes to fining for term-time
absences and would rather heads use
their discretion more, especially when
the absence is for occasions like family weddings or once-in-a-lifetime trips.
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T
here’s a
perception
that tourism businesses
increase their
prices in order to
profit-gouge from
families during
the school holidays. However, many
tourism businesses are only economically viable for four to six months of
the year and price differences that
occur are mainly a result of significant
discounting by tourism businesses during off-peak periods.
It’s very hard to get people to travel
outside peak periods and tourism businesses have to undertake significant
price reductions in order to stimulate
demand and gain the cashflow they
need to retain staff and stay open.
Travel and holidays can well be
important in a child’s development.
The tourism industry would welcome a
debate as to how to resolve the problem of enabling families to undertake
more affordable holidays while not
adversely impacting on their education
– it’s a question of getting the right sort
of balance. Spreading demand would
be of considerable benefit to the tourism industry, as extending the tourism
season would help with maintaining
the viability of many businesses.
The problem with a fining system is
that it favours those families that can
pay the fines rather than those that are
the poorest. In effect, it becomes a fee
to take children out of school that only
affluent families are able to pay.
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This policy is having
a serious effect
on our business
Lynne Johnson, Cranmer Country Cottages
T
he government policy of fining parents for taking their children out
of school during term time is having a serious effect on our business.
We have eight holiday cottages converted from a Victorian dairy farm in
North Norfolk and this policy is forcing
us to reevaluate our strategy. Our cottages were developed for, and are
targeted at, young families.
Despite popular belief, we don’t
‘hike’ up our prices during school holidays and we don’t exploit families. We
look carefully at the figures for the
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year and work out our prices so we
can sustain our business during the
rest of the year. We offer discounts on
off-peak periods which often bring us
down to break-even costs.
Previously our guests have been
able to take advantage of these discounted rates by taking their children
out of school for one day and taking a
long weekend. Or if there was a school
inset day they might have added a day
to make up a mid-week break. It’s this
business which is being damaged by
the government policy.
The feedback we’re getting is that
guests are looking for a two night
break rather than the traditional three
night break. The cost to us of a two
night break is much the same as a
three night break but we can’t expect
guests to pay that extra cost. We have
had to make the decision to offer a
cheaper two night break with people
leaving on Sunday afternoon rather
than Monday morning, but it means
restructuring the business – we don’t
normally have staff on site on Sunday
and it is important to us that we send
our guests off with the same friendly
service we offer on a Monday.
It has been suggested that the government staggers school holiday dates.
This would benefit businesses and families as accommodation providers would
be able to flatten their prices more if
they felt that there was more than 20
weeks’ guaranteed business. O
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67
BIDDING FOR
THE OBESITY BUCK
From health clubs and urban
planners to science centres and drug
companies, everyone is pitching
to solve the problem of obesity.
Kath Hudson takes a look at some
of the groups and their proposals
68
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
ccording to the UK think tank Overseas
Development Institute, one in three people
worldwide are now overweight. Even developing nations are getting fatter, as incomes rise
and diets become more fatty and sugary.
There’s a large consensus of expert opinion
that says the obesity epidemic is down to a
combination of easy access to cheap, highly
calorific food – which is often aggressively marketed – and increasingly less active lifestyles.
So what’s the answer? Various industries have
claimed they hold the key to tackling the obesity crisis and while the debate rages about
whether obesity is a disease, a disability or a
lifestyle illness, this is a business opportunity
where there’ll always be plenty of demand.
We look at some of the proposals put forward by groups aiming to own the opportunity.
69
HEALTH
The Soil Association launched the Food for Life campaign in 2003
SCIENCE CENTRES
“We think the health sector should be setting
an example, especially as good nutrition aids
On the basis that they can hold conversations with the public, science
centres have recently put themselves
forward as part of the solution to the
problem of obesity.
For the past three years, 17 science
centres across Europe have taken part
in the EU initiative Inprofood. This asks
the public if they think governments
should take responsibility for the obesity epidemic, or if it comes down to
individuals. This November, the results
will be collated and the feedback from
different nations compared.
In a separate initiative, Ecsite, the
European organisation representing science centres, museums and
institutes, created the PlayDecide
discussion game, aimed at 14 to
21-year-olds, asking them about
issues such as eating disorders, food
waste, sustainable eating and personal accountability over food choices.
According to Ecsite, the results so far
show that the majority of people believe
decisions and choices related to life70
patient recovery” Amy Leech, the Soil Association
styles should be left to citizens, but
they think governments should regulate
certain areas, such as food labelling
and prices, and should support healthy
food providers, provide infrastructure
and encourage physical activities.
Respondents also believed healthy
lifestyles should be part of the school
curriculum and that school meals
should be carefully chosen.
SCHOOLS
With its Food for Life Partnership, the
Soil Association has been campaigning
for better school dinners since 2001.
As well as driving up standards of
food in schools, with a Catering Mark
to sign up to, the partnership also
educates on cooking and growing food.
Currently 20 per cent of schools have
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signed up to the Catering Mark.
According to Amy Leech, senior
policy advisor at The Soil Association,
independent evaluation of Food for Life
saw a 28 per cent increase in primary
schoolchildren eating five portions of
fruit and vegetables a day. “Working
with schoolchildren is incredibly important,” says Leech. “The habits we form
in our youth stay with us for life.”
It’s encouraging to see that school
meals are high on the government’s
agenda, with the implementation of
the School Food Plan, including plans
to offer universal free school meals
to infants coming into effect from
September. Now The Soil Association
is aiming to tackle hospital food.
“We think that the health sector
should be setting an example,” says
Leech. “Especially as good nutrition
aids patient recovery.”
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PHOTOS: TRACES-ESPGG
Science centres across
Europe are exploring food
issues with young people
HEALTH
Ukactive CEO Dave Stalker thinks
that the focus should move from
obesity to inactivity
HEALTH CLUBS
Dave Stalker, CEO of ukactive, argues
that there needs to be more emphasis
on getting people moving, since
being physically active can lessen the
chances of serious illness in overweight and obese people.
“Obesity is the loud, out there issue,
but inactivity is the silent killer,” he
says. “Obesity will only be truly tackled
when the food manufacturers reduce
the sugar and fat content in food, so
ukactive wants to move away from the
obesity debate and engage in a debate
on physical inactivity.”
According to ukactive, one quarter of
the UK population are physically inactive and this costs £20bn in public
health funding each year. “Focusing on
physical inactivity would have a knock
on effect on obesity. It would save the
NHS and the health of the nation. You
can be fat, but still be fit,” says Stalker.
Ukactive would like to see a rebalancing of public health spending, so that
more is invested in promoting physical
activity. “Our dream would be for there
to be a fitness or community exercise professional in each GP surgery
counselling people to become more
active,” says Stalker. This approach
has proved successful in a programme
piloted by ukactive in Essex (see Let’s
Get Moving boxout, above right).
72
LET’S GET MOVING
ukactive has piloted a programme,
Let’s Get Moving, which is aimed at
previously inactive people in danger
of developing chronic diseases
related to their lifestyle choices.
Funded by Sport England and
supported by local authority public
health teams, the programme’s
aim is to create a pathway for
sustainable involvement in sport
and physical activity for those who
are currently inactive.
The pilot was carried out with
a consortium of partners with
five Primary Care Trusts in Essex.
It saw 504 participants amass
a total of 48,000 active hours,
walking 69,000 miles.
SLEEP EXPERTS
There is a growing body of evidence to
suggest sleep deprivation can lead to
obesity (see boxout, opposite page).
Several theories have been mooted
as to why. Sleep-deprived people may
be too tired to exercise, or they might
eat more as they’re awake longer and
snack at night. Also lack of sleep disrupts the balance of key hormones
that control appetite, so sleepdeprived people may be hungrier than
those who get enough rest at night.
So should governments be increasing awareness about the benefits of a
good night’s sleep? And should there
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Let’s Get Moving uses a
GP referral model based on
motivational interviewing
techniques designed to elicit
information on the basis of which
the patient can be referred to a
qualified exercise professional for a
fully supported programme.
In the coming months, additional
funding will come from Nesta,
enabling the incorporation of a peerto-peer element, which will involve
patients being mentored by a
trained volunteer and introduced to
a network of peer supporters. The
programme will also go to new areas,
starting with Essex County Council
and rolling out more broadly.
be more health interventions to help
those who have difficulty sleeping?
Sleep psychologist, Dr Andrew
Mayers, says he would like all GPs to
be trained in sleep-related issues, or
be able to refer people on to someone
who is. “This area of mental health is
undervalued and has received a disporportionate amount of cuts,” he says.
Privately-run sleep initiatives are
springing up and it’s likely the sleep
industry will start to grow as part of
the wellness industry. London already
has a Sleep School and hospitality
operators are beginning to offer
retreats aimed at insomniacs, for
example the Deep Sleep Retreat at
Grayshott Spa in Surrey, UK.
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Evidence suggests that
sleep disruption can lead
to weight gain and obesity
A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP
A study funded by cancer charities
and carried out by the University
of Oxford has found a link between
light levels in women’s rooms at
night and their weight. Researchers
speculated that melatonin might
play a role, as it’s a hormone whose
production is inhibited by exposure
to light and is thought to play a role
in metabolism.
A study funded by the American
Diabetes Association at Temple’s
PARKS
One of the reasons people have difficulty sleeping is because of stress,
and this can also lead to weight gain.
The stress hormone, cortisol, causes
an increase in appetite and when
we’re stressed we’re more likely to
reach for high calorific comfort foods.
“One of the cures for stress is to eat
sugar and fat: the body is designed
to crave this, as it gives energy
quickly,” says Dr William Bird, founder
of Intelligent Health. “When we were
hunter gatherers, in times of stress,
conflict and famine we would crave fat.
When you are stressed you become
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Center for Obesity Research and
Education in the US looked at the
impact of sleep on children’s eating
behaviours. When the children
taking part in the study slept more,
they consumed an average of 134
calories less per day, weighed half
a pound less and had lower fasting
levels of leptin – a hunger-regulating
hormone which is highly correlated
with the amount of adipose tissue –
when compared to results monitored
in a week when they had less sleep.
A study at Massachusetts General
Hospital for Children analysed data
from 1,046 children over a number
of years by interviewing their mothers
about their sleep patterns and, at the
age of seven, measured their height
and weight, lean body mass, waist
and hip circumference, total body
fat and abdominal fat. Researchers
found an association between sleep
curtailment and obesity.
less active and eat the wrong things.”
Bird believes that a three-pronged
approach is needed to tackle this
issue: environment, community and
purpose. He says the environment we
live in has a great deal to do with our
weight, stress and activity levels. “The
more deprived the neighbourhood you
live in, the more stressed you will be,”
he says. “That’s why there are high levels of obesity and inactivity in areas of
deprivation. Green space offsets that
stress, so if you live near a park or visit
a green space regularly, it has been
shown to increase your life expectancy
because your stress levels drop and
then your habits change: you become
more active and eat better.”
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73
HEALTH
BELTLINE PHOTOS: PERKINS + WILL
The Atlanta BeltLine provides
a network of public parks and
trails along a railway corridor
“The infrastructure we build really matters to the
kind of lives we lead. If all we build is highways
then we’ll continue to get a very spread-out
separated, car-dependant lifestyle”
URBAN PLANNING
Ryan Gravel, senior urban designer
at US architectural practice Perkins
+ Will believes environment plays a
key role in health. He came up with
the idea for the Atlanta BeltLine
Corridor, a 22 mile loop of green
trails made out of old railway lines,
around Atlanta, US. The trails link 45
neighbourhoods and have 100,000
people within walking distance of
them. It has proved to be a magnet
for exercise and active commuting.
“The infrastructure we build really
matters,” says Gravel. “If we build
sidewalks and greenways and public transit networks, then the market
responds with compact, walkable
urban districts. If all we build is highways then we’ll continue to get a very
spread-out, separated, car-dependent
lifestyle. Car-dependency clearly has
negative impacts on public health so
at a minimum we should stop incentivising and even subsidising it.”
Perkins + Will are consulting on
more than 30 similar projects around
the world. Find out more: beltline.org
The BeltLine was first conceived in a 1999 master’s thesis by a student
74
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BARIATRIC SURGERY
Inserting a gastric band to inhibit appetite and reduce food consumption has
become a mainstream solution since it
was recognised by NICE in 2002.
The NHS has a framework whereby
people are assessed to show they are
committed to change and then have
to engage in a year long programme
before surgery. Even then, however, it
can be difficult to assess who’ll do
well and who won’t, according to consultant bariatric surgeon at Nuffield
Health Leeds hospital, Simon Baxter.
“It’s not a magic bullet, but it can
kickstart a healthy lifestyle. The benefits last for around three months, so
people have to change their lifestyles
to receive long term weightloss and
health benefits,” says Baxter.
Studies show bariatric procedures
cause significant long-term loss of
weight, recovery in diabetes, improvement in cardiovascular risk factors and
a reduction in mortality of 23 per cent
from 40 per cent.
Baxter says studies are showing bariatric surgery shows a rapid return on
healthcare costs. “If someone has
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
a co-morbidity, such as diabetes, it
can be cheaper to operate on them
than pay for the ongoing medical support,” he says. “The other thing is that
severely obese people often don’t
work, whereas after surgery they may
go back to meaningful work, pay taxes
and contribute to the economy.”
While it can help, Baxter adds that
this approach is only scratching the
surface of the problem of obesity.
MEDICATION
Obesity medication can lessen appetite, make people feel full sooner, or
making it harder for the body to absorb
the fat from food. However, the drugs
have some undesirable side effects,
including stomach pain, diarrhoea, constipation, headaches, dizziness and
insomnia. The chance that the side
effects may outweigh the benefits is
of great concern and they are only prescribed for serious health issues.
However, if a pill could be found that
was effective in bringing about weight
loss without side effects, it could provide a solution which most people and
GPs would prefer to use.
Surgery and medication are used
only in cases where people are
suffering severe health issues
Whatever the answer, the clock is
ticking. Food and drinks companies
will continue to keep pumping glucose
syrup into products until governments
find they are spending more on treating obesity than they recoup from taxes
and other economic benefits from
these companies. Nations will continue
to get fatter and health services will
find it increasingly difficult to cope.
In the meantime, any help in terms of
education and the promotion of healthy
lifestyles is of value, as many people
are worryingly ignorant about the causes
and dangers of obesity. According to
research by Nuffield Health, which questioned 3,100 UK adults, many obese
people think they are just overweight
and don’t realise they’re putting their
health at risk. Of those questioned, 44
per cent said they had no concerns that
they were putting themselves at risk of
serious illness or premature death as a
result of their weight issues. O
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75
HOSPITALITY
A PALL MALL
PAL ACE
Founded in 1836 as the HQ for the Liberal Party, London’s Reform Club
has hosted everyone from Princess Diana to Gorbachev. Grahame Senior
finds out how the private members’ club is moving with the times
Y
ou could say it all started with
Michelangelo. His magnificent
Farnese Palace in Rome
was the inspiration for architect Charles Barry’s stunning
interpretation of Renaissance style
and while the Farnese Palace has
since been transformed into the
French Embassy, the Reform Club
is still housed in the splendid building – completed in 1841 – which it
commissioned from Barry.
Like the Renaissance palazzos on
which it was modelled, 104 Pall Mall
looks austere from the outside. Enter
those unmarked doors, however, and
you’re transported to an environment
of exquisite refinement and aesthetic stimulation. Everything about
this wonderful interior is designed to
soothe the soul and excite the senses.
The job of the main atrium is like
that of any grand palace – to create a
sense of awe and grandeur. Walking
into its full-height space and gazing up
to the sky glistening through a thousand lead-crystal lozenges of the roof
high above definitely delivers the wow
factor. As befits a palace, the interior
is flamboyant, with walls and columns
in marble and scagliola interspersed
with huge portraits and massive
mirrors all adding to the impression of
light and scale and space.
It’s a statement building – just as
important in its day as the Shard today.
It speaks of power and confidence.
More than a magnificent building
The Reform Club is one of the longest
established institutions on Pall
Mall. From the very beginning it was
revolutionary in concept and radical
76
The Reform Club architect,
Charles Barry, was inspired by
the Renaissance palazzos that
he visited as a student in Rome
in execution. It was founded in 1836
by Edward Ellice, the Whig Whip who
secured the successful progress
through Parliament of the Reform
Act of 1832 – after which the Club
is named. His fortune was based on
the Hudson’s Bay Company which was
at that time at its zenith and he had
the wealth and influence to inspire
the ‘new men’ of the era. This was
the time of the changing of the guard
between the Old Whig aristocracy and
the new liberal thinkers – the coming
men. In effect they were not really welcome at London’s more traditional
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Brooks’s Club, so Ellice and his colleagues resolved to create a new and
much bigger club for themselves.
The mission was to promote liberal
and progressive thought and enable
the ‘social intercourse of the reformers’. Like all such clubs, the Reform
was founded for the benefit of its
members and is run for that purpose
today. Membership now is not specific
to any party or political persuasion
(the liberals moved out and on to the
National Liberal Club in 1882).
The Reform is open to those who
want to escape from the constraints
of any particular political adherence.
Paradoxically enough, the Reform was
born at a time of coalition between
the Whigs (later to be overtaken by
the Liberals) and the Tories. That
relationship had much the same
unease about it as the UK’s current
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The main atrium rises the
full height of the building
and features a mosaic
pavement bearing an
Etruscan design
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77
HOSPITALITY
In an uncertain and rapidly changing world, how does an
organisation as seemingly traditional and rooted in history as
the Reform Club face up to the challenges of the future?
coalition between Conservatives and
Liberals. Plus ça change…
The Reform was originally housed in
Ellice’s own house while its purposebuilt new premises were being created
on Pall Mall. From the start it had one
straightforward objective – to make
the members feel instantly at home
and the Reform Club – to this day –
has the mission statement of being ‘a
home from home’ for its members.
It was all about the food
We tend to think celebrity chefs were
invented in the current tv era – but the
Reform Club got there first!
From the very beginning the club
had a strong focus on food. Long
before Gordon Ramsay and Heston
Blumenthal were feted as celebrity
chefs or enfants terribles there was
Alexis Benoist Soyer. This French chef
fled the terror of revolutionary France
and settled in London to become the
most celebrated cook in the land.
He was a revolutionary thinker
about food – and a technical innovator. Together with Charles Barry, he
designed the Reform Club kitchens
with so many new features (refrigerators, gas cooking, adjustable ovens)
that public tours of the facilities had
to be arranged. On the date of Queen
Victoria’s Coronation in 1838, the club
served breakfast for 2,000 guests.
He used the theatrical stage of
the Reform Club to perfect his talents and to offer a style of dining as
revolutionary in its day as Blumenthal’s
cooking is today. One signature dish
– Lamb Cutlets Reform – survives on
the menu to this day and is one of the
few recipes from club land that has
achieved worldwide recognition.
He had the same understanding of
PR as many celebrities today, even
opening an art gallery with all proceeds
being donated to feed the poor.
Still open to radical ideas
In recent years, of course, clubs have
changed from the weekday city refuge
of country gentlemen into an environment much more connected with the
contemporary world. The Reform has
always been at the forefront of change
and was one of the earliest clubs to
welcome women as full members 27
years ago. Today, of the total membership of 2,500, 461 are women.
It has an eclectic membership and
hosts a range of guests as diverse
as modern society itself. Princess
Diana lunched several times, The Iron
Lady hosted Gorbachev here and Tina
Turner chose it for her birthday party.
Famous as a venue for films (particularly Spy Films like Die Another Day) it
was the real life haunt of Burgess and
Blunt and their co-conspirators.
Home from home for the members
The two upper stories of the palace are
reserved for ‘chambers’; these delightful rooms are furnished in a traditional
style but with all the conveniences
expected of a modern establishment.
What is distinctly un-modern, however,
is the price, which is roughly a third to a
quarter of that charged by comparable
hotels in London’s West End.
Deputy secretary, Ian Kenworthy,
has been at the forefront of trying to
move forward bedroom occupancy at
the weekend when clubs are traditionally either closed or quiet. The latest
initiative offers a discount of approximately 50 per cent on the weekday rate
for occupancy on Fridays, Saturdays
and Sundays and this has led to a
(Left) A portrait of legendary
Reform Club chef Alexis Soyer,
who modernised the kitchens and
introduced a new style of dining
78
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ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
big increase in the number of weekend events which the club now hosts.
There’s a range of entertaining facilities
stretching from the top secret Cabinet
Room, which is accessed through a hidden door in the panelling off the main
dining room, to the grandeur of the
Library, which covers one whole side of
the building on the first floor and comfortably seats 120 for dinner.
One of the most surprising aspects
of the club is the fact that it has large
private gardens (which are shared with
the Travellers’ Club next door) in the
heart of Carlton Gardens, so Reform
Club members can enjoy alfresco
dining under some of the finest
London plane trees still standing.
A palace of all the pleasures
An organisation like the Reform Club
is not just about hospitality. It provides
sustenance of other kinds and the
twin glories of the Reform are its
magnificent collection of books and its
unrivalled range of societies.
The Library was established by
Panizzi who became principal librarian
to the British Museum. From the start
it was designed to be a world-class
collection with a focus on 19th century
literature, politics and political reform.
Today it houses 75,000 volumes.
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The societies range from bridge and
drawing through economics to Cryptos –
which specialises in military history. It’s
a club which offers scope and stimulation for all interests and the company of
like-minded ‘seekers after truth’.
members value the staff because
they’re both working to keep something special alive and vigorous.”
The social values and customs of the
wider world have changed hugely and
the Reform has kept pace with them.
Some specific developments envisaged
over the coming years include the
greater use of the club at weekends,
and a strategy to ensure it’s used
more for family celebrations (rules
are relaxed and children are also welcomed at weekends).
Embracing the future
In an uncertain and rapidly changing
world, how does an organisation as
seemingly traditional and rooted in
history as the Reform face up to the
challenge of the future?
In a word, vision.
Ask deputy secretary Ian Kenworthy
what is the biggest change in the club
this century and he volunteers, “It is
totally transformed. The relationship
between the staff and the members
is completely different today from the
way it was when I started working
here 22 years ago.
“There’s much more of a sense
of egalitarianism and a feeling that
we’re all part of one community. The
staff value the members and the
Afternoon tea
Along with the entire London market,
the Reform Club is also sensitive to
the downward shift in demand for
lunch which the capital is experiencing.
This is being countered by the rapid
growth in demand for afternoon tea
and specific plans are now in place to
take advantage of this trend.
The Reform will always be focused on
its members and their lifestyle choices.
At the same time, it’s sensitive to the
demands of new market groups and
is catering for a younger and more
eclectic clientele. The club – in short –
is committed to keeping up with social
and commercial trends.
And it has also kept a firm hold on
its magnificent palace on Pall Mall. O
(Top left) The dining rooms
overlook the private gardens (top
right). The atrium houses portraits
and busts of the ‘reformers’
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ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
81
LAST WORD
SHEILA JOHNSON
The US Salamander Resort and Spa, owned by film
producer Sheila Johnson, is fuelled by equestrian passion
and business ambition, but has wellness at its heart
T
ucked away in a quiet corner
of America’s horse country,
Salamander Resort & Spa near
Middleburg, Virginia, has an
illustrious history. In the early 60s, the
small town was the beloved retreat of
president John F Kennedy and his First
Lady, who spent hours riding on the
land where the property now stands.
So when Sheila C Johnson – cofounder of Black Entertainment
Television (BET) and executive producer
of recent Hollywood smash-hit The Butler
– first moved to Middleburg in 1996,
she became just one in a long list of
powerful people to be drawn to the area.
The entrepreneur bought Salamander
Farms, a sprawling estate just outside the town, and transformed it into a
family home-come-equestrian paradise.
Eighteen years later, Johnson uses
the estate as a base of operations
for her own personal passion:
Salamander Hotels & Resorts.
Salamander is a chain of luxury
properties of which the Middleburg
property – unveiled in August 2013 –
is the fourth to open.
ICONIC RETREAT
One of the only luxury resorts to open
in the US last year, the project has
been a long time in the works. It was
in 2003 that a 340-acre (138-hectare)
tract of land came up for sale just a
few miles from Salamander Farms,
and Johnson immediately knew what
she had to do. “From the moment I
stepped foot on this serene land over
10 years ago, I fell in love with it and
envisioned creating an iconic retreat,”
she said at the grand opening.
From the outset, the property was
always going to incorporate a worldclass equestrian facility. But unlike
many resorts, where the ‘…and spa’
adjunct is exactly that, for Johnson it
was the spa that was a driving force.
82
The resort offers a Yoga on Horseback course
Bringing together a team of designers that included Thomas Pheasant,
WATG and Blu Spas, Johnson’s vision
was to integrate spa and wellness into
the fabric of the resort.
AMERICAN CLASSIC
From a commercial perspective, the
Salamander Resort & Spa couldn't be
better positioned. In addition to being
the country’s unofficial equestrian capital, Middleburg is also an hour’s drive
from DC and 35 minutes from Dulles
International Airport, making it accessible to foreign travellers.
The spa offers a wide range of
massage and beauty treatments
and features wet areas, comprising whirlpools with waterfall features,
steamrooms and experience showers.
Separately, there’s a relaxation area
and rasul, plus a fitness centre, sauna
and an indoor swimming pool.
But in line with Johnson’s vision, the
wellness offering extends far beyond
the walls of the spa. At its heart is the
equestrian centre, which alongside
riding classes offers a range of well-
Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
ness-orientated programmes, including
The Equi-Spective Experience – which
aims to help participants discover their
authentic communication style by connecting with horses – and Yoga on
Horseback. Next on the agenda is the
opening of a treetop canopy walkway
and an open-air treatment room, but
Johnson also has bigger plans. These
include a dedicated healthcare facility
– scheduled to open towards the end
of the year – delivered in partnership
with a leading medical provider.
Nor does it end here. With two brand
new Salamander resorts soon to be
announced – one in Florida and one in
North Carolina – Johnson’s wellness
ambitions are only just beginning.
“As Salamander expands, our
expertise in the spa industry will be
a key part of the company’s growth
strategy,” she says. “Never has it
been more essential to marry health
and wellness to a resort experience.
We are perfectly positioned to help
owners create that environment.” O
This article was first published in Spa
Business, Issue 2, 2014
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
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